Carnage
by Black Forests
Summary: Being stripped from his post as an ANBU and reduced to a genin, Naruto became a mere confused teenager. With time, he will realise life is worth living after all. Naruto/Ino. Beta-ed by Erugenel. Discontinued.
1. Starting Over

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is beta-ed by Erugenel on 21st April 2006.

**Carnage**

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* * *

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**Chapter One: Starting Over **

"Do you know why I have called you to my office Naruto?" the Hokage inquired kindly, his hands clasped tightly in front of his face. Naruto's face was hidden behind an intricately designed and exquisite fox mask, its white features clashing with three thick strokes on each side.

The Hokage frowned slightly. He could not sense anything from the child, neither excitement nor nervousness, but a flat, dull composure. It was so strange it was disconcerting. 'Is this truly Naruto, the vibrant infant I had met eight years ago? What has shaped him into such an indifferent person that he is now?' the Hokage mused, leaving his question lingering in his mind.

"No, Hokage-sama," Naruto replied imperturbably. He did not ask what he was here for, but instead, he waited silently for the elderly man in front of him to answer. He was in the midst of packing his belongings to prepare for his latest mission when he was summoned to the Hokage.

"Well, you see, Naruto-kun…" the Hokage paused for a moment, hesitant of what he was about to do. What will Naruto think of him? Will he hate him for plucking him from the ANBU forces? He had not yet considered the consequences for his actions, but nevertheless, it is something that has to be done. "I have decided to take you out of the ANBU forces…" he started but was immediately interrupted by the small blond boy in front of him.

"What?" for once, the Hokage could notice a hint of surprise in his voice, instead of his usual cool and aloof tone. "Could you please repeat that again, Hokage-sama?" At this, the old ninja sighed exasperatedly. Even when Naruto was in the presence of his close associates, he did not remove his masque of apathy and neglect the formalities.

"I have considered this for a long time, Naruto-kun. I came have made the decision that is best for you. I want you to re-enter the shinobi academy, and learn the basics of being a genin again." Before Naruto could protest, the Hokage silenced him. "Let me explain, Naruto-kun. My reason for you to re-enter the academy is that you are too far ahead of your own age group, and even though you are a prodigy ninja, I want you to mix around the children and make some friends."

"I do not need friends, Hokage-sama," the young ANBU responded, spitting out the word _friends_ with venom in his icy voice.

"Ah…," smiled the hokage with a benevolent look in his eyes. " That, I do know, but my decision is final. You shall be admitted into the shinobi academy. Under the tutelage of Iruka-san, I trust that you will recall what you have learnt in the previous years, no? I hope that you will never bully your classmates, Naruto?" the Hokage smiled good-naturedly at the mature ninja prodigy while he could distinctively hear silent grumbles coming from under Naruto's ANBU mask. He resisted the urge to smirk.

* * *

Naruto glared at his fox mask. The slits looked back at him with its sinister hollow eyes, they seemed to be laughing at the mess he was in. He was back in his own small one-room apartment that he rented, sitting on his bed and thinking about the things that the Hokage had told him.

He did not want to return to that academy again. It was like returning to a horrible nightmare that he could not wake up from.

"Friends," Naruto tested the foreign word on his tongue. He had spent all his life concentrating on what was left for him, training and undertaking missions. Since when did he need friends? He had colleagues, of course, but they are different from friends. They only watch your back while doing missions, or even just run when you are in danger. But no, friends would risk their lives saving you, would they not?

Since his infancy, the villagers had hated him, and he had endured that. Naruto had become a genin when he was merely a child of six, rising in the ranks rapidly, becoming a chuunin when he was eight, a jounin when he was ten and now, an ANBU. Treated like dirt, he had struggled through the years for his survival. He was never treated with any respect, as he was just a child. No one had realized his hatred for the village under that unruffled façade, the pain he had hidden for so long and the anger at the villagers for treating him ill when he had done nothing wrong, done nothing to offend them.

Naruto glanced at the neat stacks of instant ramen in the cupboard. He most probably had to put up with those damned things. Sure, they are tasty and easy to prepare, but he mainly ate them due to their cheapness and convenience. Hell, when was the last time he had tasted the mortal delicacies of this Earth while he was still in this foul village? He did not like the idea of being thrown out of restaurants at all.

Pouring boiled water into the cup of ramen, he stirred the half-cooked noodles subconsciously, staring into space. He remembered when he was just five years old, the Hokage had seen much potential in him, training Naruto personally and promoting him to a genin. What he wanted most was simply respect. He had banked on his childish dream of 'becoming a hokage' as the key to earning that respect, but that was long ago. He had long since abandoned that dream. The more he had tried to believe in himself in being able to achieve his 'dream', the more people gave him looks of distaste.

But he still had not given up on living, even though he could see nothing in front of him but a bleak future. What use was it to persevere through life when there really was not point at all? He had considered suicide as an option, before a realization struck him. If he gave up now, the villagers will then have the opportunity to gloat over him being so weak.

_Over my dead body,_ he thought bitterly. Picking up a pair of chopsticks, he started eating the ramen with a vicious energy.

* * *

"Now, now, class, settle down. I would like to introduce to you a new student who will be joining us in the academy, Uzumaki Naruto," a man with a scar on the bridge of his nose wrinkled in revulsion. When the Hokage had said 'a new student', he had not expected it to be the child prodigy demon vessel. Of course, he did not have anything against that poor child who contained the beast, but Iruka just could not forget about his parents who had been slaughtered by the nine-tails.

Looking at the unresponsive look on Naruto's face, he wondered if the child knew the truth about the almighty demon.

"Hello," Naruto muttered, his greeting almost inaudible. He wore a red t-shirt with a black windbreaker over it, and simple black jeans. His rather long locks of blond hair lay messily on his head and his gorgeous sapphire blue eyes would cause the girls in his classroom to swoon. Of course, his attractive features made two girls start to squabble at the back of the classroom.

"I want to sit with him, you Ino-pig!"

"No, big forehead! He's sitting with me!"

"Naruto-san, you shall sit beside Sasuke at the front row over there. He is the top of the class and has been for a while now, and he can share pointers with you. I'm sure you will like that," Iruka grinned at Naruto. The two girls kept quiet instantly, but they did not stop glaring at each other.

Naruto turned to the glaring Sasuke. If looks could kill, Naruto would be dead by now. Naruto stared directly into the raven-haired boy's eyes, his piercing gaze making Sasuke give up glaring and look away. The blonde approached the empty chair and took his seat. He scanned the classroom, identifying a few people from various clans. There, sitting in the middle with a boy who reeks of dog scent from the Inuzuka clan, a blue-haired girl with non-existent pupils' eyes from the famous Hyuuga clan, a 'pleasantly plump' boy from the Akimichi clan, the bug controller from the Aburame clan and several others.

"As we were talking about the ways of the different angles that shuriken can be thrown…" Iruka-sensei started, and he averted his attention back to the shinobi academy teacher.

Naruto could feel himself wishing himself to be at somewhere else except here.

* * *

"Hokage-sama! This is a serious matter. That Uzumaki vessel is too powerful. We may not even have the strength to confine him to just Konoha and its ideals. What if he pulls an Itachi and kills everyone in Konoha? Can't you think of the consequences? Why did you enter him into the ANBU in the first place?" the head of the Hyuuga clan spoke rather harshly, even though he usually was the calm person, the one who would think rationally before speaking.

Upon hearing 'Itachi', a few clan heads of Konoha shuddered involuntarily. It was hard enough to believe the child prodigy of the Uchiha clan had turned against Konoha and went to join the Akatsuki that consists of S-class missing shinobi after the great massacre and the chaos he had caused in his clan and in the village itself. As the Hyuuga so much as mutter out the words that consists of 'That Uzumaki vessel', 'powerful' and 'kills everyone in Konoha', the faces of the many clan heads in the meeting room visibly blanched. Yes, they are _that_ afraid of the demon vessel. They saw him as a daunting shadow of the nine-tailed fox demon that assaulted the village of leaf years ago.

"Hiashi, you don't know what you are saying. Don't go around calling Naruto-kun as the vessel. You do _know _about the rule," the third Hokage replied, an icy cold fury in his tone. It was when everyone knows why he is the Hokage. He is not a person to mess with.

"But-" Hiashi protested, but he was immediately silenced by the Hokage.

"As I was saying, I entered him into ANBU because of the trust I had in him. I already saw where his loyalties lie when I became his personal sensei, Hiashi. His eyes told me that the day he betray Konoha is the day he die," the Sandaime said, his eyes held a determined glint that made the ninjas in the room look at him with awe and respect. They made him the Hokage he is now because of his wisdom, and the strength he has under that old and weary appearances. He is the third Hokage, the ruler of the hidden village of leaf.

"But, his powers are to be questioned. The children in his age group are still in the academy, learning how to throw the shuriken and perform henge properly, while Naruto has already mastered jounin techniques and his chakra and stamina are of a Hokage's standard. He's still twelve years old and yet so mature. He has even gone on missions and has killed people. Hokage-sama, this child is still too young. A boy of his age should not have experienced such, powerful or not," the leader of the Aburame clan said evenly.

The Hokage sighed, weariness etching itself on his face. "And I wonder why that poor child is still sane."

Sarutobi recalled the time when Naruto was five, and was being trained by him. Those days were tough for that little child. When he was eight, he had already done a few B-class missions, staining his hands with the dreadful deep scarlet of blood. The Hokage thought the experience was traumatic for that young boy, surely, but Naruto seemed unfazed with those killings, as he had once told Sarutobi:

'_I enjoyed it, Hokage-sama. They beg me to end their pain, and yet the strange expression on their faces confuse me greatly."_

The Hokage had realized that Naruto was talking about the horrified expressions on the shinobi faces, when they were facing the death god himself. Naruto was just a child! He could not understand the terror, the fear that ran through one's mind when one was about to be killed. For his victims he felt neither guilt nor pain. He felt no pity or sympathy, for their friends or families. He was learned in the art of destruction, an effective killing machine.

Naruto was being himself, after all.

"Therefore, Hokage-sama, I propose that we re-admit Naruto into the shinobi academy where he will be among children of his age and let him work his way up to being a genin again. It is not fair that at his age there is blood on his hands," the bug controller offered.

"This is-" Hiashi tried to speak again, as he was in a fit of fury. This is an outrage! How can the Hokage endanger the children in the academy with someone like the Kyuubi brat? His power is equaled to an elite jounin!

"But his standards are that of an ANBU, hokage-sama. What if he could not adapt to being a genin?" the head of Inuzuka inquired.

"He is_ still_ a child, Naruto will adapt to being a child," the Hokage answered.

A pregnant pause settled in the room, occasionally punctuated by the chirpings of birds outside.

"Then it is decided. He will return to the academy tomorrow morning. I will tell him to abandon all the missions he has for now," the Hokage broke the silence and stared at the Hyuuga intently, who was trying to suppress his anger. Hiashi merely gave a death glare to the Aburame head sitting across him, who shrugged indifferently and left the room silently. The other leaders of various clans nodded in respect at the Hokage and left accordingly.

"Do you still have any more things to say to me, Hiashi?" the Hokage asked, standing up.

Hiashi bit his lower lip. This was not what he had expected from this meeting! He wanted the demon vessel away from Konoha, away from the fire country. The Naruto brat had proved that he had high potential, what if he destroyed the village and took all the people of Konoha to hell along with it? Hiashi had seen the coldness in that boy's sky blue eyes, the malice and the hatred. He had trembled in fear when facing the demon vessel. The almighty Hyuuga clan head had trembled. The fear of the Kyuubi was still buried in Hiashi's heart and he could not forget about the demon that had attacked the village twelve years ago.

A flash of his memory, of bloodied corpses that strewn about the village, of a hurricane of blood, pain, and death, resurfaced.

He shuddered involuntarily.

"No, Hokage-sama," Hiashi managed weakly.

* * *

"Today is the day when all of you graduate as genin," Iruka-sensei declared loudly from the front of the noisy class which quickly settled down upon hearing their teacher's announcement. "All you have to do to pass the test is to make three bunshin, and that they must look the exact replica of you or you will fail." Some students in the class had already broken out in cold sweat, their anxiety gripping them as Iruka started calling out names in alphabetical order, one by one.

Iruka managed a tiny smile when he looked at his students who were able to do the bunshin perfectly, with no flaws in the clones at all. He thought that his past efforts had been worth it for this huge achievement. They had done him proud. He watched as Haruno Sakura did three clones flawlessly and beamed at the teacher. Yes, it was all worth it.

At last, it was Uchiha Sasuke's turn.

He ignored the whole group of ballistic girls who were yelling random things like, 'Go Sasuke-kun, show them what you've got!', 'I know Sasuke-kun can do more than a hundred clones!' and 'What? Of course he can do more than that! Go, Sasuke-kun!'

Sasuke was _very_ used to this fan club he has in the school. Forget about having girls shouting your name wherever you go, but recently, he could sense that several girls were stalking him. Those strange girls wouldn't train and become stronger, but only cause trouble for him. He did not think _anything_ of those girls. They were just a burden to him, a stumbling block on his path to his goal.

The Uchiha merely did the seal that was needed for the Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique), uttering the words, 'Bunshin no Jutsu!' and ten clones appeared beside him. Many girls were awed by his calmness and the fact that he could do ten clones without breaking a sweat. It was no wonder he was the child prodigy everyone had called him in their year.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you pass. Next, Uzumaki Naruto," Iruka glanced at the raven-haired boy who took his place among those who had already passed the genin test. Sakura blushed furiously when Sasuke took a place beside her, oblivious to her embarrassment.

"Naruto-san, please create three clones," the academy teacher instructed.

Naruto nodded slightly and mouthed the words 'Bunshin no Jutsu' and ten clones appeared without any hand seals. Iruka gaped at the blond kid in front of him who dismissed the clones easily. Naruto had done the bushin no jutsu without any hand seals. The girls in class drooled and many boys just stared at the blond dumbfounded, even the brooding avenger, even if it was just for a second.

'_Why is he that strong?' _Sasuke narrowed his eyes dangerously, like a predator watching its prey with hawk-like eyes. He had never thought much of that bizarre blond who had just entered the academy, a week ago. He had merely thought Naruto as just another individual who would be a burden to him someday. He thought that of everyone. But now, he could not stop himself from wishing that Naruto would be in his team that will be announced tomorrow.

Ino and Sakura regarded Naruto as vultures eyeing a hunk of meat. They totally forgot about the pretty boy beside them. Anger rose within the brunette unconsciously. _'Well, I will surpass that guy over there. He is only another student in this academy!'_

Naruto took his place among the students who had already passes without saying a word. This was all too strange for Naruto. What was so wrong with him that all the pupils in the class were staring openly at him? He did not like the attention, especially the fury radiating from the silent Sasuke sitting a few seats in front of him. He definitely did not want to be in any team with Sasuke.

Iruka regained control of the class hastily _and_ his voice, clearing his throat and speaking loud and clear, "Naruto, you pass."

* * *

Naruto walked along the pavement leading to his apartment, while a group of jounin and chuunin started to dash past him, yelling and making a din. Clearly, nobody wanted to give him any peace and serenity after such a long day in the academy with a genin test. He still could not understand about the Hokage's intentions of sending him back to academy and taking the genin test again. Had the Sandaime underestimated him or simply thought that he is too young to do missions of ANBU? If it were true, Naruto had no qualms. But what he really wanted to know was what had motivated the Hokage to send him back into the academy? Were there strings being pulled here?

Naruto nearly sighed inwardly, but he remained silent as he listened to what were they shouting about.

"Mizuki, that bastard traitor!"

"We will show him about betraying our village!"

"I bet he took that scroll to learn those forbidden secret jutsu! That son of a-"

Naruto did not hear the finishing word of that particular ninja's sentence as he sped off to look for that academy teacher. He could not understand why that teacher would want to steal such an important scroll from Konoha. Whenever he saw Mizuki, he always saw that good-natured smile on his face, and Naruto was always reminded of the third Hokage.

Now why would he want to steal the scroll?

He flitted from tree to tree, increasing his pace at a furious rate, his mind already registering this as a mission. The scroll was forbidden, Mizuki-sensei… He just could not relate the academy teacher with the scroll. They were as compatible as a fish on dry land.

Could he have wanted to steal it to give it to another enemy of Konoha or he really did want to simply get stronger? '_How naive,'_ Naruto mused. '_Just another power hungry shinobi. These fools are plain stupid.' _He scoffed at the frightened look on Mizuki, which quickly turned into a sneer when he saw Naruto.

"Ah, a mere genin thinks he can defeat a chuunin alone without any help from other people. Who you think you are? Don't try to play the hero, boy, you'll only get hurt," Mizuki snarled in revulsion, like tasting something foul in his mouth upon discovering that his opponent was only Naruto. He had thought that someone who had caught up with him may be the ANBU, or even several chuunin or jounin. But, he never expected it to be just a blond genin who had only passed the genin test this afternoon.

"What do you want the scroll for? I heard people shouting of you stealing it," Naruto retorted coolly.

"Of course you will never know, fool. This scroll contains the most powerful jutsu in Konoha, which makes it forbidden for other shinobi. Whoever wants to be as powerful as the Hokage would yearn for such a thing," Mizuki retorted, laughing maniacally, echoing throughout the dark forest. It was stopped abruptly when a kunai was neatly buried into his heart, followed by four more lodging in his body and terror and pain in his eyes. He fell to the ground with a low 'thud' as the five kunai claimed his life, blood gushing out from the wounds.

"I wouldn't want you for a Hokage," Naruto said softly, picking up the huge scroll that Mizuki had _tried_ to steal, only to be stopped by him. The demon vessel then opened the scroll and pored through the contents of it. His eyes flickered from jutsu to jutsu, and finally his attention was on a single jutsu, the jutsu that the Yondaime had used on Kyuubi to seal it into an infant twelve years ago.

He did not know how he should see the fourth Hokage as. The village's hero or someone he should truly hate with all his life?

Naruto wondered if he could reverse the jutsu that the Yondaime had used. He glanced through the words on the scroll and he could only come up with an answer.

The fourth Hokage had been a genius for coming up with a jutsu that was irreversible.

Of course, he did not feel much sadness. Naruto understood the consequences if the seal could by any chance, be reversible. He may die in the process, or even, the Kyuubi may take the lives of the Konoha villagers.

Not that he cared, though.

Naruto skimmed through some techniques that may prove useful to him some other days and quickly left it just where he found Mizuki-sensei as he heard people running in his direction. He took a quick look at the bloody heap of mess that was Mizuki, the traitor.

"You deserved that."

* * *

The class quickly settled down as Iruka-sensei came into the classroom, students anticipating Iruka to announce the teams they would be in. Most were nervous and some looked pretty confident, like Ino and Sakura at the other side of the classroom.

"I will be the one to have Sasuke-kun on my team!" Ino exclaimed like a three-year-old, screaming for candy.

"No, I will be the one!" Sakura growled predatorily, wanting to show Ino who's calling the shots here. It was then, Iruka decided to stop the perilous two and declare the teams. Ino glared daggers at Sakura, who was sneaking glimpses at the raven-haired boy sitting at another corner of the classroom.

"Team One…" Iruka began to read out from a piece of paper while the students leaned forward of their desks, wanting to know about their team eagerly.

Finally, Iruka-sensei reached to Sakura's name. "Team Seven, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto…"

'_Yesss! I got the two most drop-dead gorgeous boys in my team! Go, Sakura!' _shouted inner-Sakura. She nearly yelled in glee, gloating at her own victory of the little match against Ino to compete for Sasuke-kun. Even Naruto was on her team! To hell with him being so quiet, he was just her type!

"Team Eight, Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba…"

Sasuke gave a sideway glance at the blonde boy sitting two seats away from him. Now that he had that Naruto on his team, he could challenge him to a fight whenever he wanted. He really wanted to know the true power that lay beneath that cool demeanor of Naruto's. Of course, now the only problem was with that pink-haired girl who would definitely encumber him. He had never expected a fan girl to be in his team, nevertheless one that was completely obsessed with him. Oh, he _really_ couldn't wait for the day when he would be doing missions along with her as a comrade. Sasuke could already hear the incessant blabbering of the pinkie already.

"…And Team Ten, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Choji and Nara Shikamaru."

Naruto could hear the blonde girl shrieking about things like Sasuke not being in her team and how it was unfair that the laziest and fattest boys were on her team. A the point that the Yamanaka girl said the word, 'fat', Choji's eyes had this extremely dangerous glint in it that made Ino shiver in horror. He really did anticipate that Sasuke would be in his team, for some unusual reason, but he just could not make out anything about that Haruno Sakura sitting over the other side, staring at Sasuke and him with flowers and little heart shapes in her large emerald-green orbs.

"You people are genin now. All of you shall meet your sensei in half an hour's time in different classrooms. Class dismissed," Iruka-sensei said, walking out of the classroom.

Naruto sighed inwardly.


	2. Tests and Ordeals

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is beta-ed by Erugenel on 7th May 2006.

**Carnage**

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**Chapter Two: Tests and Ordeals **

The birds were chirping merrily outside, the joyful people of Konoha were bustling on the busy streets of the village and the blissful shop-owners started to set up their stalls as the morning sun was shining its breathtaking beams on the contented people of Konoha.

However, one person of Konoha is really, really, _really_ mad about something, or rather, _someone _in particular.

"Where is that dimwit teacher of ours? That stupid imbecile, does he have a death wish?-!" Sakura yelled in frustration, swinging her fists in the air. Sasuke and Naruto merely sweatdropped. Of course, any normal person would be acting like her (like a mad woman) when someone they were expecting had not showed up for three whole hours. Three hours that you could have used to bathe, train and eaten lunch.

"Ah, about that dimwit teacher, the stupid imbecile who has a death wish on himself is here," a silver haired man appeared just right behind Sakura, clutching her fists gently. Sasuke's eyes widened to the size of saucers. He hadn't sensed this man standing in front of him coming at all!

"My first impression of you is…I don't like you," Kakashi stated.

"Kakashi-san," Naruto acknowledged, giving the jounin a small nod from where he was standing. Sasuke's eyes nearly popped out from their sockets. He did not expect his teammate to even know about this guy at all! What was going on?

Releasing his grip on the dumbfounded Sakura's hands, Kakashi turned to Naruto, his eyes narrowing to slits. _'Why is Uzumaki here? Is he on a mission as an ANBU to be a spy or something?'_

"Ah, how about let's introduce ourselves at the roof of the academy? See you there in, like, five seconds!" Hatake Kakashi's unhidden eye become 'U' shaped, as he seemed to smile under his mask. He did not give his students any chance to retort, though.

* * *

"Okay, how about introducing yourselves to this poor dimwit teacher here first? Let's start with your names, likes, dislikes and dream," Kakashi said, pointing at Sakura. "You go first."

"But, sensei, you as our teacher should be introducing yourself first, isn't it?" Sakura responded, as Sasuke, for the first time, agreed with the pink-haired girl. "Yeah, we want to know who you are."

"Maa, maa, my name is Hatake Kakashi. What I like is none of your business. My dislikes…well that's none of your business too. My dream is…" Kakashi trailed off, wondering what to say. "Okay, your turn!"

"So, all we know is your name?" Sakura huffed angrily, putting her arms crossed on her chest. She wanted to know more about their teacher, not only his name!

Kakashi merely nodded, smiling again.

"Alright, alright. My name is Haruno Sakura. I like…" Sakura started to have those weird flowery and starry kind of eyes. "My dream is to be…" She turned to look at Sasuke and squealed softly, then, turned to Naruto and did the same. "And my forever dislike is Ino-pig!" She screamed, her face red with rage. Kakashi sweatdropped at the temper of the girl. _'Can't she think of anything but about boys? Especially when they are her teammates!' _Kakashi resisted the urge to sigh.

"Okay, the brooding boy," the silver-haired jounin jerked his head to one side, indicating that it is the Uchiha's turn to speak.

"Hn. I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I don't have any likes, but I have a lot of dislikes. I don't have a dream; it's more like a goal. My ultimate goal is to kill a certain person and to resurrect my clan." Kakashi narrowed his eyes. _'Of course, he's still thinking of killing his brother… but to resurrect his clan too? This kid is really unexpected…'_

"Okay, your turn, silent kid," Kakashi said to Naruto.

"Uzumaki Naruto. I like to do missions and I dislike being hated without a reason. My dream is to…" Naruto closed his eyes for a moment. When he was young he had wanted to be the Hokage, but he had long given up on that dream already. But what about now? He once thought that being among the living was the best thing he could manage. Now that he must survive with being on team with people he barely knew. What was his dream? He had been so caught up in his work that he had not had time to think. Could he even dream for anything anymore? He doesn't even reckon that he has that ability to dream anymore. Whenever he saw the hatred in the villagers' eyes, he usually quailed and longed to be out of sight. He didn't know what to do. He didn't care anymore.

"…To learn more jutsu," Naruto made himself believe that it was his dream. Maybe it's made up, but for now, he will settle for just that. At least he will have a goal to work towards, to exhaust himself with. If he had a dream, it would prove that he was still a simple human being, a mortal and not the Kyuubi or its shadow that the villagers and the others see him as.

Kakashi didn't know what the brat was thinking. Naruto was an ANBU of high rank, just like himself. He himself was twenty-six, while Naruto was only a child of twelve. Despite that, he really thought highly of the demon vessel. But why is Naruto here? Why was he demoted to a genin?

"Now that we have introduced each other, I will tell you that we will have survival training tomorrow at the training field," Kakashi declared.

"But, Kakashi-sensei! We have already done that in the academy…" Sakura protested but was interrupted by Kakashi.

"I am telling you the truth and I know you guys will surely be shocked at this piece of news," the silver-haired sensei began to grin from ear to ear. "Out of all the academy students that have been made genin, only nine will be chosen as a genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy."

"WHAT?" Sakura shouted, obviously shaken by this piece of bad news. Sasuke seemed more broody and grim than usual but Naruto was the only one remaining emotionless. Of course, it was the Hokage's idea to send him back to the academy, so he wouldn't worry about not being a genin when he already held a high-ranking position in ANBU. It's kind of funny though, when you see a high-ranking ANBU, failing just another genin test.

Naruto just had to make sure his teammates did not fail too.

"Oh, and remember not to eat any breakfast because you may puke tomorrow morning," Kakashi waved farewell, chuckling a little upon seeing Sakura's white face.

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto turned to go their separate ways when Kakashi called out, "Naruto, just a minute. I have something to discuss with you. Sasuke and Sakura, you two may leave first."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded in unison and left the roof of the school.

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto inquired. If this was about the Hokage returning him to the academy, he knew what was coming. He wanted to know exactly what were the Hokage's motives.

"Naruto, why are you here posing as a genin? Are you being a spy or some sort for the Hokage?" Kakashi lost all the cheerfulness in his voice but replaced it with a grim and solemn tone.

"No, Kakashi-sensei. I would like to know the reason too," Naruto replied.

Kakashi frowned. There was much talking to be done with the third Hokage.

* * *

'_I dreamed a dream yesterday, ojii-san…'_

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi greeted casually, as if the Hokage was an old friend and not the ruler of the Village of Leaf. He had been intrigued by the decision of placing Naruto in his team, posing as a mere genin when he greatly surpassed his teammates. What did the Hokage have in store for them? What exactly were the Hokage's motives? What was he trying to achieve by putting Naruto into his team? The questions had been bothering him ever since the Hokage made the decision to re-admit Naruto into the Ninja Academy. Yet he could not question the Hokage of his motives, he was at least mindful of his place. The Hokage's word was final.

But, the idea of Naruto being in his team was really _ridiculous_.

"Yes, Kakashi. I understand you are here because of Naruto, am I correct?" Sarutobi looked up from the mountainous pile of paper work which awaited his attention, giving the ex-ANBU a wan smile on his weary, elderly face. God, his wrinkles can easily pass off as miniature roots, the narrow gaps in between can even trap _flies _in them. The smile only made him look worse. Kakashi had never seen the smile for a long time. It was that tiny, sad smile that the Sandaime had given him when the fourth Hokage had died in order to seal the rampaging demon, Kyuubi into a newborn infant on the tenth of October.

The lazy jounin dreaded that smile.

Kakashi could only look away, grimacing a little when the Sandaime gave a long, drawn-out sigh. What will the Hokage say now?

"Kakashi, I hope you will understand. I wanted Naruto to be recognized by the children of his age group. Did you see the amount of blood that had stained that child's hands while being in the ANBU? Carrying out missions like daily routines, this is not to be expected of a mere twelve-year-old shinobi, Kakashi. He can still have friends, carrying out perhaps, D-class missions and hang out with his teammates, but never the A-class missions in which he'd kill people."

'_It was peculiar, my dream, where I was submerged in a strange liquid. I think it was red, and I saw a girl crying before me.'_

"But, Hokage-sama, Naruto is on an entirely different level from his teammates! Sasuke and Sakura are only genin, how do you think they will handle it if they know that Naruto is from the ANBU?" Kakashi asked, perturbed that the Hokage made Naruto seem like an innocent child who should not dirty his hands with that deep scarlet, but he had seen Naruto on missions before, had even been on one with him.

He killed his enemies mercilessly like swatting flies; they were not worth anything in Naruto's eyes.

'_Then the girl stopped crying and looked up at me like I'm a monster, everything was red, very red- then I saw her fall before me, her dress had a lot of blood… In the dream, it was so real; I thought it really happened, ojii-san! '_

"Hokage-sama?" Kakashi inquired gently, jerking the Hokage back into reality.

A four-year-old Naruto had once told him about his strange dreams. Dreams of blood, of massacres, of carnage and death. It was a time when Naruto would always confide in him, that friendless and lonely boy, and he remembered the sorrow mirrored in the boy's cerulean eyes. He didn't want to see it anymore.

"Kakashi, this argument is over. Naruto will stay in your team until further notice from me. Understood?" Sarutobi rubbed the bridge of his nose sub-consciously, feeling himself fighting to stay awake already. He was very exhausted, very fatigued. He did not want to succumb to sleep since he still had much work to be done that day.

Kakashi cursed silently to himself, as he could not get a straight answer from the Hokage. "Yes, understood." He will ask again another day, perhaps.

_'Ojii-san… Stop those dreams for me… Please…'_

* * *

Naruto gripped the edge of the porcelain ANBU fox mask when he saw Ino, the blue-eyed blond girl he saw in the academy, walking towards him. Of course, he did not anticipate the girl to strike a conversation with him since he didn't even know her, and they were the most distant of acquaintances. Things looked very awkward when Sakura decided to join Ino at that point.

"Hey, Naruto-kun!" Sakura gave a huge grin to Naruto, but merely glared at Ino considering the fact that they were now, not only fighting over Sasuke, but Naruto too. The pink-haired girl settled beside Ino who ignored her pointedly and visibly blanched, her face becoming flustered and red with embarrassment when Naruto addressed her directly.

"Ino-san, Sakura-san," Naruto acknowledged, putting the ANBU mask back into his weapon pouch, but was too slow because Sakura had discovered the presence of it.

"Hey, Naruto, what is that mask in your hand?" Sakura asked, barely concealing her trepidation and uncertainty in her tone. She had seen these masks around before, in Konoha. Those peculiar animal masks that Konoha ANBU would carry around, obscuring their faces from others. Sakura had caught a glimpse of Naruto's one. It had a sinister fox face carved on its white porcelain, and the disconcerting smirk of the mask sent chills down her spine.

"It's nothing," Naruto replied nonchalantly, averting his attention from the mask. "Just something I purchased along the streets just now."

Ino frowned delicately on her pale features, reflecting on what Naruto had said. _'That's strange,' _Ino mused. _'Since when do they sell these masks around here in Konoha?'_

Forgetting the mask, Ino piped up, "Hey, Naruto, do you want to come to a party that I will be holding at my house to celebrate us being genin now? It will be really fun, since there will be food and games, and most genin from our class will be coming too!"

"A party?" Naruto's eyes flickered towards Sakura, as though he was seeking reassurance that he heard correctly but his pink-haired teammate merely shrugged in response. Judging from the lack of expression on that cool façade of his, Sakura got the most absurd impression that Naruto had no idea of what Ino was talking about.

"Yeah, a party. It will be great if you can come join us!" Ino tried to keep her voice cheerful when she saw the hesitant look that was reflected in those round blue orbs of Naruto. She was looking forward to Naruto and Sasuke being at the party as she saw it a golden opportunity to let her know more about the new student in the academy. It would be more difficult to get to know him if she missed this chance now, since they were no longer shinobi of the academy, but real genin now.

"I have not been told by Kakashi-sensei to participate in any activities, nor had the Hokage ordered me to do so," Naruto replied, his eyes becoming distant and unfocused. Did the Hokage mention anything about a party? Was this some sort of a test included by Kakashi to test on his…social skills or was it a trap of some kind? Naruto decided it was best to turn down the offer politely, what if someone was trying to kill him? He had enough experiences of those already.

"You don't need any orders to go to a party! They don't control your life even if you've been made a genin already. Come on, it's just a small celebration! It's only a day! You can stay only an hour if you want to, please do come!" Ino said with a pained expression, a silent desperation in her features. She really seemed genuine about only having a party and there was also a pleading look on Sakura's face.

Even if it turned out to be a trap, test or assassination, he will be able to fend off his opponents.

Won't he?

"I will go then, Ino-san."

* * *

The golden bells glinted in the harsh rays of the sun, shining brightly as it mirrored Sakura's shock and dismay. The silver-haired elite jounin had decided to test them the same old classical bell test, which he had used on the many teams that did not pass and become genin. He smirked, placing an alarm clock at the tree stump in the middle of the training field before declaring loudly, "The three of you will have an hour to get these bells from me and the only way you can succeed in snatching it from me is to come at me like you are going to kill me, like you are fully fledged murderers. The one who fails to get one of these golden bells will be tied to that gorgeous tree trunk over there and there will be no lunch for that person."

"No wonder he asked us not to eat our breakfast this morning," Sakura rolled her eyes exasperatedly while her stomach decided to declare war with her exactly after her statement.

Sasuke merely grunted in response and Naruto stood there, staring at the two golden bells that now hung loosely from their sensei's pants. Wait a minute… There are only two of those bells. If one of them failed to get the bell, will the other two still become genin or all of them will fail the test? But either of those explanations did not make much sense, since it seemed that their fates were sealed and they would fail anyway.

What exactly was the purpose of this test?

"Once I give the order, all of you can either charge at me with your killer intent or hide somewhere and plan your moves," Kakashi said, his tone laced with honey. He was about to begin when Sakura protested vehemently, "But, sensei! You may get seriously injured if we really come at you with full killer intent! Do you _really_ have a death wish?"

"Oh come now, Sakura. Do you think I'm a jounin for nothing?" Kakashi smiled a little under his mask, preparing to take out that precious book of his. He had been waiting for this moment to come; he had wanted to read about what will happen next.

Wait, but one of his opponents is Naruto. God, Kakashi nearly forgot about that composed child on his team. His level is of his standards, or even higher! That meant that he couldn't enjoy the almighty series of the Icha Icha Paradise!

"Things will get rough from now," Kakashi muttered under his breath.

Sasuke pulled a kunai from his weapon pouch designed for ninjas, preparing to sneak a stealth attack on his teacher when he was caught. "Wait, wait. I haven't even said 'start' yet, Sasuke-kun."

Sakura gasped aloud. She hadn't even seen her teacher move at all!

"Let us begin."

Sakura scanned her surroundings as she hid in the undergrowth while observing the melee between Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke. The raven-haired boy blew out a massive ball of flames from his mouth with a loud and clear, 'Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)' and that gigantic ball of fire rushed towards the sensei. Sakura nearly wanted to scream as she saw that jutsu engulfing their sensei and saw something fall onto the ground, resembling a scorched tree trunk that once was Kakashi.

'_Kawarimi No Jutsu? (Body Replacement Technique)' _Sasuke narrowed his eyes, looking around the clearing to find their teacher.

Sakura blinked rapidly to try and keep up with the progress of the combat of Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei. Upon discovering that their teacher had disappeared from the clearing, panic began to rise within her. She was really tense at this sort of situation, even though it had been only fifteen minutes since the test had began. Butterflies began to churn in her stomach, making her feel even worse. So far, she hadn't seen any hint of that blonde boy who she was hoping to meet.

Feeling a little frustrated, she thought it would be best to meet up with Sasuke and work together against their teacher. Their opponent was an elite jounin, after all. Tears were already threatening to fall from her eyes. Sakura didn't like the feeling of being weak at all. The thought of her comrades thinking her of being a burden made her heart clench, as she rubbed the corners of her eyes furiously. Ninjas were supposed to be calm and rational at all times and should not show their emotions during situations like this. Personal matters and missions were supposed to be kept separate.

Sakura was about to get up from the undergrowth when she heard a soft 'Yo!' and saw Kakashi smiling at her with a strange sparkle in his visible eye. She was about to object violently when she heard a soft and quiet groan from beneath her.

"Sakura… Help me…" There was Sasuke who Sakura had developed a crush on in her academy days whose body was bleeding profusely from the many shuriken and kunai lodged firmly in different sections of Sasuke's battered body. He looked deathly pale, like a corpse. Unable to contain herself, tears began to flow in rivulets from her face before she can fully understand what is going on. Screaming like a crazy woman, she was enveloped in darkness promptly afterwards.

Kakashi sweatdropped. He didn't know that the reactions of the girl would be so dramatic. He had merely used a normal genjutsu on the girl to make her believe that Sasuke is badly injured when he saw her hiding in the bushes.

Hearing the shrill cry from their pink teammate, Sasuke could feel his heart thumping inside him, anticipating Kakashi's next moves. It had been a minute since Kakashi had pulled a disappearing act on him and in his mind; he hastily planned out what he is going to do next.

"Now, Sasuke-kun, I shall teach you taijutsu," Kakashi's voice came out from nowhere and he was going to strike the still boy with his own techniques when Naruto interrupted, "Katon: Ryuuka No Jutsu! (Fire Dragon Flame Technique)"

'_Shit! He's fast!' _Kakashi cursed inwardly while doing the Kawarimi without hand seals to prevent getting hurt from that huge dragon that was made purely out of fire.

"Kage Bunshin No Jutsu, Shihou Hapou Shuriken No Maki! (Shadow Clone Technique, Shuriken From All Directions)" Naruto said again as twenty shadow clones appeared, collectively leaping into the air and hurled a multitude of shuriken and kunai at Kakashi simultaneously, raining steel on that poor jounin while one of the Naruto's shadow clone saw an opening in the silver-haired ex-ANBU and easily scored the two golden bells.

All the clones disappeared with a loud 'poof' and Naruto took both of the bells with Sasuke eyeing it. Since Naruto had gotten two of the bells, he would at least give one to him right? _'There are only two bells and the one returning to the academy isn't going to be me.'_ Sasuke smirked.

* * *

Sakura was tied to that gorgeous, lovely tree trunk that Kakashi had mentioned earlier on, glaring at their sensei for tricking her with her genjutsu. She did not expect Kakashi to actually use her own weakness against her, even though shinobi should expect this things ought to happen while locking a battle with enemies.

Sasuke and Naruto each had gotten their lunch since they had at least fought against their jounin sensei. However, Sakura had simply fainted in the middle of the test and therefore was tied to the tree trunk.

"Now, don't give Sakura food or I will fail all of you. Even though Naruto had gotten the two bells, all of you still don't understand the true purpose of this test. We will try again after you two finish eating," Kakashi said, walking away.

Naruto's eyes flickered to Kakashi for a moment and while their sensei was fully gone, he raised his lunch box to Sakura.

"Here, you can have this, Sakura-san."

"B-but, what if Kakashi-sensei finds out? We may get into trouble!" Sakura protested but her stomach immediately didn't agree with her. A loud growl that only a tiger was capable of was heard from their pink teammate.

Sasuke turned to a flushed Sakura who was trying not to show her hunger and discomfort. He, too, gave his lunch to Sakura. "You can have this too. Look, Kakashi isn't here and I don't want you to drag us down later on."

Sakura nearly cried from the concern of the two boys, as Naruto used a kunai and carefully cut away the ropes that secured Sakura to the tree trunk. "T-thank y-you…" Sakura managed to stammer, as she took the lunch box from Naruto.

As soon as she was free from the tree trunk, Kakashi appeared from nowhere and Sakura gasped in both shock and dismay. Now they are going to face the music and fail the test! She should have protested violently just now when Naruto offered her his bento and now, because of her disobedient stomach and its incessant growling, they will fail this test! Now, they must return to the academy and forget about being genin again. Sakura swallowed, closing her eyes and crossing her fingers, hoping for a miracle to happen.

"You all…" Birds chirped happily above in that blue, blue sky, Sasuke glared, Sakura stilled and Naruto had a tiny weensy bit of panic in him. Was he the cause of their failure since he had offered his lunch to Sakura first?

"PASS!"


	3. Endless Nights

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is beta-ed by Erugenel on 7th May 2006.

**Carnage**

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* * *

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**Chapter Three: Endless Nights **

"Naruto-kun, take a seat," the Hokage said affably, indicating the chair to the blond child in front of him. He had received a rather short (due to their sensei's laziness) report from Kakashi that included the most essential things that had happened in the genin test that their assigned teacher had given them. Of course, the Sandaime had anticipated that it was just a classic bell test in which the real purpose of the test was teamwork and to watch each other's back. This traditional genin test had been going on for decades ever since the hidden village of leaf was created because for shinobi, one of the most important rules was teamwork. Without it, missions would fail.

The two bells were to let the genin think that there will only be two who will pass the test, but the true intention is to let them work in harmony and get the golden bells together with a well-thought-out plan.

Sarutobi had been surprised, really, ever since he saw the previous reports that Kakashi had made when he was assigned to teams of three genin to give them a final test and pass them as proper, real genin.

That silver-haired elite jounin had never passed any of the genin teams before in history.

Naruto and his team must have reset Kakashi's record for passing (barely).

"Hokage-sama," Naruto addressed, sitting down on the chair awkwardly. With his face covered by his porcelain ANBU mask, Naruto's voice was muffled and unrecognizable. The Hokage noted with a tinge of sadness that Naruto _still _regarded him as merely someone of much higher status who needed to be treated formally. He only wanted to have a nice, long chat with Naruto and not _that _Naruto under the mask.

It was a challenge to get Naruto to talk to him.

The old, wizened man sighed, his fingers finding their way to his forehead to give it a pleasant, long massage. He realized with a start that these few days ever since Naruto was re-admitted into the academy, all he could do was sigh. Anything concerning the boy made his heart wrench in guilt and grief. The Hokage remembered that particular twelve-year-old memory in which he had promised the fourth to make Naruto the village's hero and not let the fact that Naruto was a vessel for a demon pull wool over the villagers' eyes.

He remembered those blue orbs that were filled with so much sorrow and pain on that young leader's face before the death god had claimed him after he had done the scared ritual of sealing the demon in an infant's body.

The third knew it was unfair to the fourth and to Naruto because they had carried the burden of banishing the Kyuubi to another place in which it could cause harm to the villagers. But, the fourth had wanted to protect Konoha and the people with his sincerity and love for it and was willing to die for it. But, Naruto did not have a choice of choosing the road he wanted to walk on, the fate he wanted to face, the destiny he wanted to be a part of. Yondaime had mercilessly and successfully sealed the demon fox into Naruto when he was just a baby who could not choose whether he wanted to be a carrier for the demon.

Naruto did not have a choice; he didn't want to be hated, but this was his fate and destiny, one which other people had chosen for him.

"Naruto-kun, how is your team?" Sarutobi inquired gently, giving the person under the mask a good-natured smile. He hoped that Naruto would accept them as not only teammates, but also friends. Sarutobi knew it was only fair for Naruto that he, as the Hokage, help Naruto in any way he could while his life is in utter shambles.

The clever, lively kid in the past had been no more. Naruto had lost his cheerful self over the years, dedicating his whole childhood to the only things that were left for him, missions and training. Whenever Naruto chatted with the third in the past, he would only talk about jutsu, missions or anything that related to those subjects. Naruto had never talked anything besides those with only a few things about himself occasionally, but never other people, or anything like 'I made a friend today'.

The third Hokage remembered the vibrancy and joy in the child years ago whenever they talked about more new jutsu. Whenever he asked if Naruto had tried the delicious bento in the village's most famous restaurant or even go into the newest fashionable ninja weapons' store, the bright boy would immediately become silent, his eyes downcast.

The Hokage had the realization that slowly dawned on him. Of course, who would want to have a demon-vessel enter your store (even though he had done nothing to the village, haven't done anything to harm them yet)?

"Sakura-san was knocked unconscious awhile later after the test started due to a genjutsu and after some time, I got both the golden bells when I saw the opening that Kakashi-sensei had given me. Although I got both the bells, Kakashi-sensei had said it wasn't the true purpose of the test and it was until Sasuke-san and I gave our lunches away to Sakura-san before we passed the test," Naruto repeated from memory, frowning slightly under the mask. Why would the Hokage ask him this question when Kakashi would most probably include it in his report? Are there any motives under that smiling face?

Naruto eyed the Hokage wearily under his mask. Naruto was tired. He didn't want to play any more games, where he had to guess people's intentions towards him. He found it all so exhausting; he was getting paranoid and suspicious over the years when he was facing the Hokage. He still did not understand the kindness that the Sandaime had always given him, which was a big contrast to the villagers' obvious loathing towards him.

What does the Hokage want?

Sarutobi shook his head, much to Naruto's surprise. The elderly man had a pained look in his eyes, making Naruto feel uncomfortable. Was that… pity? Naruto did not want to be pitied. He had no idea why people would want to pity him. It just made the boy feel nauseous when looking at that expression on the Hokage's face.

"That's not what I mean, Naruto-kun," the Hokage spoke softly, "What I mean is that, how do you find your team? Did they treat you nicely or things like that… You know, like what teammates and friends usually do; chat, eat, train together…" A hopeful glint appeared in the man's eyes that went unnoticed by Naruto.

The blonde was however, confused. "Sir?"

The Hokage's hopes plummeted to the ground and his heart twisted in guilt. What had he done for Naruto this few years? The only things that he had ever done for that poor boy had only been training him and raising his rank to an ANBU before stripping his position off him again when he just settled nicely.

God, he hadn't considered about Naruto's feelings at all. The Hokage discovered, with a painful start that he did not let the child decide for himself again. He did not even ask if Naruto wanted any of this at all, even if it was to help him. He realized he had only been really, really selfish to Naruto.

What would the Yondaime think of him?

Mortified, the Hokage's voice was laced with what seemed to be bitterness and a tinge of pain. "It's okay, Naruto. You will get used to them being your teammates now." _Just take one step at a time and make friends with them… _

"Yes, Hokage-sama. If there is nothing else, I would like to leave for my mission with my team later on," Naruto responded.

"Yes, you may."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," With that, Naruto bowed and left the room, leaving the Hokage with his guilt-ridden heart.

* * *

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted in glee as she spotted the brooding boy at the place where they are supposed to meet as a team to do a D-rank mission. Ever since the bell test that Kakashi had given them, the pink-haired girl still could not forget the sight of Sasuke reduced a pulp. If she ever lost him, what would she do next?

"Did you see Naruto and Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, standing up from his sitting position under the shady tree. Their jounin teacher would, undoubtedly, be late but the yellow-haired boy was nowhere to be seen.

"Sakura-san, Sasuke-san," Naruto greeted, appearing just next to Sakura who squeaked in astonishment. She should know that ninja always appeared out of nowhere, but it never ceased to amaze Sakura of Naruto's speed and stealth. She knew better than to question her blonde teammate; he was the only one who could at least get a single hit on Kakashi in the bell test. Even _her_ Sasuke-kun didn't get any scratches on the jounin.

After many hours later, when the morning had turned into afternoon, the sun hanging high in the deep cerulean sky, their teacher decided to turn up.

"You're late!" Sakura yelled, swinging her fists (like the previous time) at him with an intense glare. Sasuke showed emotions at the teacher's tardiness for the first time. He scowled. Naruto remained the only one who was passive.

"Sorry, you see, there was this really adorable bunny that blocked my way this morning, delivering me many chocolate eggs and to repay its kindness, I went back to my house to get a few treats for it…" was Kakashi's lame excuse.

"LIAR!" Sakura shouted hotly, resisting the urge to slap their teacher on the forehead. How can their teacher be so… lame and not at all creative? His excuses were always so contradicting, like 'It was raining and I had to run for shelter' when it hadn't rained at all in the entire day.

"Maa, maa, I will leave you to decide if it is true or not, but for now, let's all go and begin our D-ranked mission for today," Kakashi kept on a smiling face which angered Sakura further. Hadn't he heard what she said?-! One day, she would get her revenge.

But, for now, she could only think about the mission. A mission! She had not done one before, only listening to her father's ramblings on his day's mission while eating dinner. His 'stories' would always include battle scenes of his teammate and him fighting against strong opponents, and not just thugs and bandits.

Then, Sakura would show how powerful and incredible she was to Naruto and Sasuke when they come upon thugs and bandits. She could already imagine it: While walking on the road, on the mission of saving an important princess of another country, they met a group of burly and wild-looking bandits. After a few rounds of battling, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun fell under their opponent's hands. It is up to her to save the day!

Sakura could only daydream when they were walking to their destination with a smiling Kakashi, a scowling Sasuke and a non-responsive Naruto.

* * *

Applying the white-wash onto the wall of the beautifully furnished living room, Naruto was already finishing his part of the painting while Sasuke was three-quarters done and Sakura was still slogging her heart out on the other side of the room. Naruto knew D-ranked missions are usually easy work and boring too. But his teammate did not know of this valuable knowledge as Sakura's fantasy of an adventure was crushed like an unimportant ant when they were told to paint the house in four hours time.

Naruto had noticed that defiant stare that the owner of the apartment had been giving him throughout the whole mission, making him feel slightly queasy. It was like a hawk staring at its prey until it leaves the perfect opening for the hawk to chance upon it. Naruto hated these emotions, which would get in his way sometimes. His heart often twisted at the outwardly shown hatred and loathing and the feeling always left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Kakashi must have noticed the way the old woman kept glaring at the blonde because he had pulled her away to begin a long, pleasant conversation.

Inwardly, Naruto thanked Kakashi so that he wouldn't cringe anymore under that intense gaze. He hated people staring at him, especially the villagers whose eyes always traveled to the whiskers-like scars on his face, then to the fabric covering his navel. Of course, he knew what they were trying to look at: the seal that the Yondaime had placed on him to contain the Kyuubi.

He remembered that one time when an assassin who had tried to murder him had informed him of the knowledge that he was oblivious of long time ago. He had been the vessel for the Kyuubi. He had shook in fear before realizing that it must have been true because if it was not, then what will be the reasons of the hatred directed at him, the shunning of his age group children and assassinations that had been going on for a few times through the past years.

He had plotted revenge on that very village that had hated him, shunned him and mistreated him.

He became a ninja in hopes of getting his revenge when he's more powerful when he grows up. He will become the most powerful person in the world so that he will not be glared at with hatred.

He wanted the villagers to look at him with only fear in their eyes.

Naruto was only six.

"This is dumb! I don't understand why we must do such missions! It's so boring and we need to use so much effort! I rather return to the academy!" Sakura then continued to rave, without the presence of Kakashi-sensei and that old woman. She did not know that missions are supposed to let ninjas waste their time and effort like that! If so, she shouldn't have come in the first place. But, seeing her two crushes doing their job diligently, Sakura decided against running away from the house and stop her incessant grumbles and start on her part of the wall hastily.

After the time limit of four hours was up, Kakashi walked up to his team and declared loudly that the mission was a success as they had finished their work within the time limit. Leaving, the three genin of team seven waved goodbye to the owner of the gorgeous apartment, with Kakashi beaming at the obviously frightened woman. The old woman reluctantly and grudgingly said a muffled 'thank you' and slammed the door at their faces.

"I guess this mission went well after all, ne?" Sakura smiled slightly despite having to work for a callous and mean old woman who made them work for four hours straight heartlessly.

Sasuke's reply was, "Hn."

* * *

Naruto rang the doorbell, waiting at the doorstep silently, keeping his promise of coming to the blond girl's house for the genin party tonight. Wondering if the other genin from his class will turn up for the party, Naruto was about to press the doorbell again when the obstinate, large oak door wouldn't budge.

His index finger froze in mid-air when a large, broad beam of light was thrown across the sidewalk as the door opened abruptly to reveal Ino. The girl seemed to be out of breath, her cheeks slightly flushed. She wore a green dress with white frails at the bottom of it, a dazzling butterfly-shaped hairpin clasped tightly on her wavy yellow locks of hair.

"Hey, Naruto," Ino breathed, blushing slightly as Naruto looked at her dress with a hint of interest. He obviously didn't see her before without wearing her normal shinobi clothes; Ino only dressed more stylishly for the party. She had been worried about having no clothes to wear, pacing up and down of her apartment looking for the perfect dress. It had been a good thing that she had Sakura as a friend (kind of, despite the fact that they are rivals) because the pink girl was the one who found the gorgeous outfit for her in her wardrobe.

"Good evening, Ino-san," Naruto replied, a rare smile crossed his features, making him look more handsome than ever.

"Uh, y-yes, d-do come in," Ino's face reddened to the color of a tomato as she invited Naruto into her house. Her home was filled with a sweet-smelling aroma of cooking pastries; a soft and slow music was playing from nearby.

"Hey Naruto-kun! I'm glad that you came!" Sakura chuckled, smoothing down her hair to make sure it stays flat. She hoped to make a good impression for Naruto, letting her hair lose and wearing a dark crimson tank top and mini skirt. "I think Sasuke-kun had decided not to come though. But it's good enough that you came!" Sakura blushed slightly at her own words.

"Thank you, Sakura-san. I thought it wouldn't make a difference if I didn't come though-"

"N-no! We love you to be here! It will be much different if you didn't come," Ino interrupted, and then paused embarrassingly when she realized what she have said.

"T-thank you, Ino-san," Naruto fumbled for the correct words to say. Had Ino just said that 'It will be much different if he hadn't come'? That's a first. Throughout his life, since when did anybody miss him in anyway they could? He had wished for such thing to happen though; he always felt miserable when the adults either throw him looks of distaste or pretend he's invisible.

Naruto rather they glare at him than the latter. He hated being alone, and being treated like he's not there only made him feel more miserable. He hated that feeling, that emotion that always well up in his chest and often won't go away. It was irritating; it made him feel weak at times.

"Here, you can have a sit first while I get you some drinks and some pastries that my mother baked. They are delicious, I promise you!" Ino piped up upon seeing that distant and unfocused eyes of Naruto. It was like he was trying to recall a bad memory …

Naruto nodded, sitting down on the armchair that Sakura had led him to. The blue-haired girl he always seen in class was there too, smiling shyly at him. Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba and Shino were there too. Shikamaru was sitting beside Choji who kept on munching on his tidbits, sighing and saying things like: 'How troublesome… Why did I agree to this?' and 'I wished I'd stay at home…' Kiba let his eyes wander around the rather huge house, replying to the few barks from Akamaru occasionally: 'Yeah, I wonder what's cooking…'

Shino was the only one who was unmoving, staring at the new arrival intently.

"A-ano, N-naruto-k-kun, h-hello, m-my n-name is H-hinata H-hyuuga, ho-how do y-you do?" Hinata stuttered, managing to survive her sentence in a minute. It was a quite a feat for her already because she had never talked to Naruto before.

"Hello, Hinata-san, I'm doing fine, and you?" Naruto replied, unsure of what to say in front of this girl. It seemed that she's shaking and stuttering profusely like on the brink of fainting any moment. In his mind, Naruto debated on whether to turn away and go help Ino with the pastries to rescue the timid girl from her awkward situation or to continue this painful conversation.

"I-I am v-very fi-fine, th-thank y-you-" Hinata's tiny and nervous voice was left unheard when Ino came announcing loudly into the living room. "Here is the food!"

Ino's mother came after her, balancing a plate of cupcakes and various pastries on either side of her hand and Inoichi was holding two trays of drinks. Naruto and Kiba then went up to the couple and tried to help the struggling two as they nearly collided into each other. Ino smiled at the Naruto who was trying to be helpful.

Naruto offered a hand to Inoichi's tray, "Here, let me help you."

A sudden gasp was not left unheard. The two trays went crashing down onto the marble floor and the fragile glasses shattered into pieces, the drinks spilled everywhere. Everybody looked up in surprise and saw Ino's father shaking in anger, rage and fury.

He was glaring at Naruto like the blonde was a monster.

"I-I shall not tolerate the presence of this dem- boy! Get out of my house this instance!" Inoichi roared, his face flushing with anger. Why, why of all people, why did his daughter invite this demon to their residence? Didn't he often tell her not to get in touch with him?-!

He saw the tiny smile that his daughter had given the demon! Why, why did Ino do that?

"Go, go now!" Inoichi ordered again, leaving everyone in the apartment speechless and dumbfounded. Did he just ask Naruto to leave? This is supposed to be a great party!

"F-father," Ino pleaded, tears threatening to fall out from her eyes. Why was her father trying to spoil the party that she had planned with so much effort? Could he not see that she liked Naruto? Her father had promised to let the party to be held peacefully! He had promised her not to do anything out of the blue… "P-please…"

Inoichi was about to swear something foul when Naruto nodded his head. "I understand, sir." _I know this was going to happen. It always happens anyway. It always happens… Always happens… Always…_

The blond boy dashed out of Ino's house, silence lingering in the air. It was Ino who broke the uncomfortable silence.

"I hate you, father."

She broke out running, running in the direction that Naruto had ran towards. Nobody stopped her.

"Naruto! Naruto!" Ino yelled, her voice ringing clear in the dark forest. A flash of lightning flared in the ominous dark sky, appearing as a streak of bright yellow amidst the black. Thunder rolled, rain clouds coming into view. Anxiety began to grip Ino as it was going to rain soon. Where was Naruto?

Raindrops began to fall from the sky, soaking the soil quickly. The rain began to beat against Ino's unprotected skin mercilessly; the drops began to fall harder, bullets from the sky, aimed at her. Soggy mud splashed onto Ino's beautiful emerald dress as she ran barefooted clumsily and the heartless drops of water started to affect her vision.

A silhouette flashed across her before Ino could comprehend that it was Naruto.

Following the shadow blindly, knocking into a few buttress roots of trees that nearly tripped her over, she discovered the blond boy in a clearing with a hand on a sturdy oak tree and breathing in quick, ragged breaths. He was slightly hunched, droplets of water dripping down from the bangs of his hair.

"Naruto?" Ino inquired gently. She crossed her fingers and hoped with a silent desperation that he wouldn't be angry with her father or anything. She had wanted the party to be a success!

The demon vessel turned slowly to face her, water flowing down his face in rivulets. They weren't tears. His eyes held no emotion whatsoever that froze Ino's heart instantly.

"Naruto… Are you all right?"

"…"

"I know my father was harsh… But don't take his words to heart… He's always like that…" Ino tried to explain but did not detect any reply from the boy. Was he really hurt from what her father had said?

"I-I, Naruto-" Ino tried again, before Naruto interrupted her.

"It's okay, Ino-san, I didn't take his words to heart," Naruto's voice was quivering. He was shivering, but not out of the chill from the wind. He looked at his hands. The shaking didn't stop. He wants it to stop badly. Stop. _Stop. STOP!_

Ino approached Naruto cautiously upon seeing Naruto so shaken. She wanted to go over there and smack him on his forehead to wake him up, but he seemed so… disturbed. She did not know what to do. Ino did the second best thing she could do.

She hugged him from behind, hands embracing the boy.

Naruto stiffened, uncertain of how to react to this sudden action. His trembling still wouldn't stop. He willed it to stop. But he couldn't. His breaths became more erratic; his eyelids threatened to shut, his vision wavered. He wanted all of this to stop. Stop hurting. It hurts so much. So much… Go away… Stop…

His mind couldn't register what was going on.

"Naruto… I-I am sorry…" Ino started without breaking away from the drenched boy. "I don't know why my father reacted like this…"

Naruto's legs wobbled like jelly and he collapsed onto fours along with Ino. The dirt sprayed onto the two but they took no heed of it. _Why? Why is she like this? Why? Go away. Stop. _

"I l-like you, Naruto-kun," Ino managed to admit at last. Naruto's breathing nearly stopped. What had she said?

No, it must have been a lie. A lie. Everything he's living for is a lie. He is a lie. No. He doesn't want this. Go away. Stop!

"No…" Naruto choked out. The rain was forever falling and falling. Time had frozen and the rain kept on falling and falling, intending to rain for an eternity.

It's all just a lie.


	4. Clashing Waves

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is beta-ed by Erugenel on 9th July 2006.

**Carnage**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Four: Clashing Waves **

_A blond man donning white robes swept across the bloodied battlefield filled with injured or dead shinobi and civilians, and lifting up a wailing infant, seemed to offer the little yellow-haired child to the hovering figure above them. The suspended silhouette made no move to attack the two, its hollow, obsidian eyes seemed to stare right through the robed man's soul, the thin, skinless, claw-like fingers made its way to the child, caressing the boy's chin gently._

_The child stopped crying immediately, small chuckles escaped his mouth, and the tiny, baby-like fingers approached the slender, skeletal ones and started playing with it curiously._

_The tattered, daunting white wings that ripped two holes at the back of the dark black robes, the large, intimidating weapon that had a strange resemblance to a scythe that rested in the stranger's bony fingers suggested that the figure wasn't human. However, the idea did not scare the child as it proceeded to attempt to put the pasty white, emaciated fingers into its miniature mouth._

"_Do you really agree to this?" the figure taunted as it removed its fingers from the playful child. The blond man looked extremely weary at the moment even though he was only in his mid-twenties. He considered the consequences of his actions and the benefits that the village or at that point, the child he was carrying would get. He was aware that he was going to burden the child with a greater power yet, but the fate that awaited the boy would be a difficult one. He could only hope silently that the child never gave up, for it was the destiny that awaited him. He would have to face life alone._

"_Yes, I am ready," the man replied, his eyes filled with a quiet determination._

* * *

Naruto sat up on his bed, beads of perspiration lining on his forehead. He had nightmares almost every night to the point that he was already used to it, but this dream had been so… real. Naruto could nearly smell the metallic, foul stench of the blood that had been shed, hear the desperate cries for help of the many people in his dream, the deal of a man between another being that did not exist in their world.

Naruto had noticed, the child that the blond man had carried in his arms looked the exact replica of himself, and he also remembered seeing the sinister, black eyes of the almighty demon lord that was being restrained by a difficult jutsu that was cast upon it.

Did the dream bear any connection to his past?

Naruto could not remember anything about the Yondaime sealing the Kyuubi inside him, since he was only an infant then. Abruptly, his lungs felt like the air was squeezed out of them, his heart clenched in agony and Naruto began to cough violently into his hand. His coughs subsided as quickly as it came but the blood in his hand did not go unnoticed by Naruto. Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, as the burning sensation in his heart did not disappear.

Naruto sighed in relief as the pain began to subside and he proceeded to wipe away the blood that was on the edge of his mouth and his hand in the bathroom. He stood up unsteadily, his legs feeling like jelly as he made his way to his destination. Naruto rested his hand on the wall, putting his weight against it to support him.

Will it still continue like this?

The demon vessel let the water from the tap run vigorously, as he began to wash his face with a vicious energy; the scattered liquid fell on the tiles of the bathroom floor. Naruto looked up carefully into the mirror that held his reflection and he saw there, something that he had not seen in many years.

Fear. Uncertainty. Pure terror.

Why was he reacting to this dream so strongly? Or was it… what happened last night? Naruto recalled the drenched night before, the way in which Ino had embraced him, and he felt so… frightened. So vulnerable.

The fear of contact… Naruto had not come into human touch with people for so many years, except for the times when the third Hokage would stroke him on his head when he did a particular jutsu right or the times when his opponents would come near to him, enough to land a blow on him. The soft, gentle touch of Ino was burned in his mind and he shivered slightly. Would he be able to make… friends with Ino? He shook the terrible idea away; whenever he of thought that, the outcome would always be the same: he would be let down again and again. He had learned not to hope for too much. The higher your hopes were, the deeper you plunged into disappointment and despair. The words that Ino's father had said made his little determination falter and he shut his eyes tightly.

But Ino had said she liked him… was it true then? But even if it was true, that wondrous, blissful feeling of love would be taken away from him too.

Naruto touched his reflection in the mirror, which looked so lonely, sad and scared, like a small kitten, his eyes downcast.

He could only hope that much…

* * *

The days went past for Team Seven as they did countless D-ranked missions, ranging from re-capturing an escaped cat that belonged to a rich mercenary or to even washing the toilets of the villagers. Sure, the payment were quite satisfying for the genin, however, Sakura got pretty fed up when she heard from Kakashi that they had to do yet another lousy, useless D-ranked mission.

"Sensei! We have spent a whole two weeks on nothing but useless D-ranked missions when we are capable of doing so much more! Please, Kakashi-sensei, help us get a C-ranked mission at least!" Sakura pleaded pitifully, crocodile tears leaking from her eyes, her bright green orbs shining convincingly. Sasuke for the first time, agreed silently with his pink-haired teammate. For every D-ranked mission they were assigned to do, Sasuke felt that his skills were wasted on doing such worthless things.

"Maa, maa. Do not complain so much, Sakura. You should be proud to do such missions because you are doing the village favours. Maybe another time then we might be able to get a C-ranked mission, hopefully. D-ranked missions are more suitable for genin," the silver-haired jounin answered, his hand scratching his head nervously under the intense gaze from the pink teammate. Naruto, however, seemed more reserved than usual. Something seemed to be amiss with the boy but Kakashi just could not put his finger on it.

Their squabbling landed them at the place where they usually collected their missions as Sakura proceeded on with her convincing act, tears flowing dramatically from her eyes as she begged for a C-ranked mission. Iruka-sensei, their academy teacher and a few other chuunin who give out missions sweat-dropped at her staged performance. The Hokage merely laughed out loud, gazing at Team Seven.

"That's all you want? A C-ranked mission you shall have then," the Hokage said, trying to suppress his guffaws. Iruka however looked unconvinced. How can Hokage-sama give a genin team a C-ranked mission so easily? And this genin team had only done seven D-ranked missions before; their inexperienced skills might not be able to let them carry out a C-ranked mission efficiently.

"But, Hokage-sama! They are still quite inexperienced in carrying out missions! How can you be sure that they will be able to handle a C-ranked mission?" Iruka protested loudly.

"Are you doubting my ability? Iruka-kun?" Kakashi inquired, a teasing grin appearing under his mask. "If memory serves me right, the team's sensei will be following them whenever they are doing missions, isn't it? How can I let my charges fail to complete a C-ranked mission?"

Iruka blushed furiously until the Hokage stopped Kakashi from teasing him. "Well, Iruka, just give them a C-ranked mission…"

"Well… Hokage-sama… Oh, alright then…"

Sakura did a victory sign with her hand, turning to hug the brooding avenger in their team who sidestepped and the pink-haired teammate landed face-flat onto the ground inelegantly. Finding the entire situation rather amusing, Naruto smiled a little, but as quickly as it came, it was gone in a flash.

Noticing the small smile that Naruto had on his face, Sarutobi chuckled. _Naruto certainly looked much happier than before…_

As Team Seven turned to leave after collecting their mission that required them to report there at seven in the morning sharp to meet their client, Shikamaru's team and Hinata's happened to come and collect their mission at the same time. Ino and Naruto's blue eyes met for a brief moment; Ino wanted to speak desperately but Naruto dismissed that strange feeling in his chest hurriedly before he left the room along with Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke.

"Na-" Ino started but Naruto already left. Facing Naruto's retreating figure, Ino couldn't help but feel sad that he didn't give a chance for her to explain. Was he still mad at her for the incident that happened weeks ago? Ino was already pressured to breaking point; her father insisted that Naruto shouldn't be even come into contact with her, much less that Ino should like him.

Kurenai gave Naruto a sideway glance. _Isn't this the Kyuubi child? Isn't he an elite jounin? Why is he here?_

She spotted the unfocused eyes of Naruto's, as he seemed to be deep in thought. Kurenai narrowed her eyes.

"WHAT! I'M GOING TO BE PROTECTED ONLY BY THESE BRATS?-!" Team Seven's client yelled at their faces, sending spittle all over their poor souls. Tazuna merely huffed, crossing his arms on his chest. "I paid so much and all I get are these weak, useless genin?"

"Well, Tazuna-san, I hope you won't underestimate them, or me. I'm a jounin, after all," Kakashi responded with his usual cheerful self while trying to restrain an all-worked-up Sakura who was struggling against Kakashi's strong arms. Sasuke scowled at the awful remark that the bridge builder had said and Naruto still remained unresponsive.

"… All right…" the old man replied reluctantly while bringing up his wine bottle to his mouth and took a long swig from it. After the commotion, Team Seven began their long awaited C-ranked mission…

"Tazuna-san, you are from Wave country isn't it?" Kakashi asked while they walked along a small and narrow path in the thick forest. Before the bridge builder could answer anything, Sakura piped up, "Wave country? Are there any ninja there? Will we be meeting some on our way, then?"

"Don't worry, Sakura, a C-ranked mission will not include fighting with ninja; maybe some bandits though," Kakashi answered. Tazuna began to perspire copiously. While they were still walking, Kakashi and Naruto happened to notice a puddle of water on the ground. If it hadn't rained for many days, where did this puddle come from?

However, Naruto and Kakashi took no heed to the puddle and continued walking along the path with the other three.

That was until a silhouette appeared, rising from the puddle of water; a mist shinobi forehead protector on his head attacked their sensei from behind.

Another figure appeared and a long, thorny chain was tightening its grip on their jounin teacher, which was held by two look-alike shinobi.

"W-what?" Sakura, Tazuna and Sasuke shouted in unison but it was too late as one of the stranger replied with a deep, creepy voice, "One down!"

The chain was pulled forcefully and a squishing sound was heard as blood spilled everywhere, enveloping Team Seven, their client and the attackers with fresh, crimson liquid. Kakashi was pulled apart, and what were left of him was bloodied flesh and his torn clothes.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura shrieked, seeing her teacher fall like a heap of worthless trash with the unmoving, visible eye on Kakashi's head staring at her. She felt useless and she willed herself to move. Sakura shut her eyes from the horrible scene before her; she wished that this was all a dream, that it was not true. So much for her dreams of rescuing Kakashi and her team mates. Maybe if she just willed herself to sleep and when she woke up, Kakashi would be as good as new.

"Two down!" the two mist shinobi surrounded Naruto with a perilous glint in their eyes, their chain whipping around him, then-

"Foolish move," Naruto muttered as he leaped up into the air easily and drew out four kunai, throwing them into the assailants' direction, pinning them against two particular trees. Blood spilled out from the two mist shinobi's wounds and both screamed in anguish.

Sakura gasped aloud while Sasuke and Tazuna gaped. "Impressive, Naruto," Kakashi said, not showing any surprise. He knew of the demon vessel's abilities and these two should be easy to finish off for him.

Sakura decided to scream at that moment, "Kakashi-sensei! How-" Kakashi smiled at her, indicating to the many pieces of neatly sliced wood on the floor that had been him a few seconds ago. _'Kawarimi no Jutsu? (Body Replacement Technique)'_ Sasuke mused.

Naruto approached the two unknown shinobi slowly while they froze immediately upon experiencing the killer-intent that started to roll off from Naruto. "The Demon Brothers… Isn't it?"

"B-brat… D-don't t-think we can't k-kill you!" one retorted, but his eyes betrayed him because it was only pure terror that was mirrored in them.

"Who sent you?" Naruto asked as killer-intent continued to pour out from him and making his own teammates begin to react strongly towards the intense, raw power.

"G-Ga-tou…" the other mist shinobi replied, shaking in fear.

"Thank you," Naruto answered coldly, turning his back against them and flinging two kunai at them deftly which lodged firmly into their hearts, ending their lives instantly.

The other people that were present there gasped aloud, except Kakashi.

_How could Naruto kill so easily? He didn't even look at them when he killed them!_ Sakura and Sasuke thought in unison. Tazuna's eyes were downcast. _Such is the life of a ninja… They kill so easily…_

"Naruto… You should clean up that wound on your arm quickly… The chain has poison," Kakashi commanded as he noticed the nasty, red wound on Naruto's left arm, which was bleeding profusely.

Naruto took a glance at his bleeding arm before replying, "It's okay; it will stop bleeding soon." After his statement, he took out a kunai and struck it into his arm to let his blood flow so that the poison will not enter his body, used a seal-less medical jutsu on the wound until it healed completely, leaving a smooth skin on his arm before continuing to walk on, leaving his dumbfounded team and dumbstruck client.

* * *

"So, you see… I can't make it home without your help…" Tazuna explained about Gatou, the bridge and why ninjas are after him. Naruto walked in front of the four and remained quiet for the entire journey. Kakashi kept sneaking glances at the blond genin while listening to the rather pitiful predicament that the bridge builder was in at that moment.

"All right, Tazuna-san, we shall continue on our mission but you have to promise us that you will pay us the full amount of at least a B-ranked mission's after the bridge is completed," the single sharingan-eyed jounin answered, smiling slightly at the old man. Tazuna sighed and nodded halfheartedly and took another long sip from his wine bottle.

"There!" Sakura shouted suddenly to her left, taking out a shuriken swiftly and tossed it skillfully at something. All heads turned to Sakura who walked to the direction where she had heard a tiny squeak within the bushes. _Go Sakura!_ She shouted to herself. _You shouldn't let the others snatch all the limelight anymore! You can do something too!_

"Ah, it's only a squirrel!" Sakura laughed nervously. Everybody else sweat-dropped. The poor squirrel had its bushy tail pinned against the large oak tree, its hard earned hazelnut rolled away from it and the poor creature whimpered miserably.

"Don't scare us, little girl! You gave us a fright there," Tazuna hollered at the pink teammate who advanced upon the poor creature and hugged it affectionately, returning it the hazelnut. After what was done, the squirrel scampered off hurriedly into the bushes with its beloved nut.

Naruto hurled two kunai into another direction. "STOP FRIGHTENING US, BRAT! THERE'S NOTHING IN THE BUSHES-" Tazuna began to yell but halted when he spotted someone stepping out of the shadows of the trees. Kakashi's eyes widened to the size of saucers. Zabuza?-!

"You have pretty good instincts, boy. So it's you, Sharingan no Kakashi…" Zabuza spoke for the first time and Sasuke prevented himself from gaping upon knowing that Kakashi had the Sharingan. Sharingan is the most treasured bloodline of the Uchiha clan; how did Kakashi get it?

"I guess it will be Zabuza, isn't it? Well, the fight is going to be tougher now…" Kakashi lifted up his Konoha shinobi forehead protector to reveal his spinning Sharingan eye.

"Ah, that won't be necessary… I only need to kill that old man over there…"

"Protect Tazuna-san!" Kakashi turned slightly to find Sakura, Tazuna and Sasuke freezing up due to the overflowing killer-intent that was radiating from the missing-nin. Naruto however, dismissed the killer-intent with his own. Zabuza found himself unable to move.

"Zabuza-san…" Naruto's smile widened as he bowed formally before the Mist shinobi, something that Team Seven haven't seen before. "Pleased to meet you…"

"W-wha-" Kakashi started but was too late as Naruto had engaged Zabuza in combat.

"Kirigakure No Jutsu… (Hiding Mist Technique)" Zabuza muttered as thick mist began to envelop the entire place, creating a sinister, mysterious atmosphere in the battle. "Now, which one shall I go for first? Your delicious heart, the lovely lungs, your tasty stomach or even better, your gorgeous head! Hmmm… I can't make up my mind…" Zabuza's taunting voice echoed in the strange mist, and Sakura's emotions began to overwhelm her. Even though she couldn't see what was going on in the mist, Sakura could tell that Zabuza would take his own sweet time in killing her teammate. _If this goes on… Naruto-kun will die!_

"I'm very used to battling in the dark, Zabuza-san… A little of mist won't affect my vision…" Naruto uttered, loud enough for the mist missing-nin to hear only. "Now, what do you say? Your heart or your head?" Naruto nicked Zabuza's neck with a kunai, applying enough force to draw a thin lining of blood, which Naruto proceeded to lick with a sadistic smile plastered on his face. This power… This raw power he was experiencing… Naruto felt power rushing through his veins, his entire chakra system. _Ah… It's THAT chakra… I will have to make full use of it…_

Sensing something amiss, Zabuza quickly broke away from the blonde's grasp to catch his breath. This brat! He is no genin! His level must be at least chuunin… But the killer-intent he is giving away is too overwhelming! Who is he?

"Mizu Bunshin No Jutsu! (Water Clone Technique)" Zabuza spoke, his voice wavering a little due to the overwhelming killer-intent that rolled off the blonde, and two water clones appeared next to him. Deciding to stay away from Naruto, Zabuza tried to prevent melee combat, but to send his own clones to fight against Naruto.

"Kage Bunshin No Jutsu, (Shadow Clone Technique)" Naruto did a hand seal as ten shadow clones appeared before Zabuza. The ten clones smirked relatively as they approached the two water clones with stealth and to most ordinary people's point of view, they would appear as blurred figures. Zabuza's eyes enlarged as he witnessed the downfall of his own clones and his opponent's clones then 'poofed' out of existence.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan No Jutsu! (Water Release: Water Dragon Blast Technique)" an enormous water dragon rose from the calm waters, its huge frame quickly fell, planning to hit Naruto at full-blast. Naruto merely smirked.

Black chakra flames began to lick Naruto's body, engulfing the boy in the mass of power. Team Seven and the bridge builder stared at the raw power that was enveloping the demon vessel, even if the mist was making a little hard to see.

"**Yami No Kagami No Jutsu…** (Mirrors Of Darkness Technique)" Naruto's voice was slightly deeper than before, his eyes were what frightened Zabuza the most. They were black, obsidian glints.

Eight black mirrors grew from within the soil in eight different directions, rising rapidly until the height was towering over Zabuza.

"**Kuro No Hana No Jutsu…** (Black Flowers Technique)" the demon vessel spoke again, as scattered bits of black colored flower petals descended from the sky slowly, slow enough for everybody to admire the beauty of it, before the petals flew straight towards Zabuza with a vicious energy. The steel-like flower petals sliced the mist shinobi's body and clothes, creating bleeding wounds here and there and the flower petals stopped, disappearing into thin air. Zabuza, too, fell to the ground with a low 'thud' as he lost too much blood.

"Damn…" Zabuza breathed, his voice hoarse and his vision blurring; he could not see what was in front of him except for the darkness. Feeling more comfortable with the darkness that was welcoming him, he succumbed.

Naruto's raw energy began to subside, and Naruto fell on all fours. _'W-what's that… I haven't felt this before…'_ His breathing became ragged and erratic, and he began to fight for air as he coughed violently, blood spraying all over the ground. _'No… Not again…'_ He fought desperately to stay awake… But the darkness is so much more comforting… Naruto didn't want to show weakness in front of anyone, especially his own team. They shouldn't witness this…

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed, running to his side as the mist cleared. The blond boy's vision wavered as he saw Sakura's vague outline. "S-Sakura-san…" His hand reached out to touch the salty tracks of tears that were flowing down her flushed cheek.

"Thank you for defeating Zabuza," a masked person appeared from behind some trees. The stranger with a hunter-nin heaved the missing-nin's body onto his shoulder.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the mist hunter-nin that Kakashi had pointed out to be before falling into a deep slumber.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes slowly, blinking furiously to adjust to the harsh rays of sunlight streaming in through the small windows that were hindering his sight. A dark silhouette was hovering over him and he could barely make out the words like 'Naruto!' and 'Is he awake?' The blond boy squinted before realizing Sakura was placing a soaked, cool small towel on his forehead.

Naruto caught her hand in mid-air awkwardly, causing his pink teammate to blush and pull her hand away. Naruto froze. Had he done something wrong? He merely touched her hand… Then again, whenever he bumped into someone, that person would apologize profusely before turning and finding out his identity and then proceed to shout out some obscenities. If he were fast enough, he would be able to run away before the person decided to hit him. But sometimes when he was out of luck, he may meet a ninja instead and it would not just be some foul words.

He looked around his surroundings. They are not, by any chance, caught by any of their enemies when he was knocked out cold, right? Naruto's eyes narrowed as his mind registered that the place was totally unfamiliar to him. He glanced around the room suspiciously. The walls had several cracks; the pathetic excuse for a window was made from poor quality wood and Naruto could tell, mainly because it was threatening to fall apart already.

"Naruto, are you alright? You have been unconscious for one whole day already," Kakashi inquired with the tiniest hint of concern in his voice as his nose was buried deep into a miniature, orange book that indicated that only adults that are eighteen and above can read. His jounin teacher was leaning against the wall, flipping the pages leisurely, the uncomfortable silence occasionally punctuated by his soft, girl-like giggles. Sasuke was in a corner of the room, brooding and sulking as usual.

Naruto tried to recall what had happened the day before.

The fight between Zabuza and him…

That hunter-nin…

"Where are we, Kakashi-san?" Naruto asked, sitting up despite the violent protests from his obviously sore body. He had not healed completely from the drain of _that_ charka yet and he was still feeling rather light-headed.

Kakashi looked up from his beloved book. "We are at Tazuna-san's house, Naruto." The visible eye went back reading.

"Oh." Naruto stared at his right hand, his left firmly clasped on the soft fabric of the small laid-out bed. He had not lost control for a long period of time already… Why now? What if the next time this happens again…? Naruto discovered his hands trembling.

He hated the feeling of being so helpless.


	5. Rising Currents

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is beta-ed by Erugenel on 15th August 2006.

**Carnage**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Five: Rising Currents**

"Ah, you must be Naruto-san. You were unconscious for quite some time already," Tazuna's gorgeous daughter spoke, addressing Naruto, smiling widely. Naruto, however, only gave back a small, tiny smile, but warmed up her heart anyway. She sincerely hoped that this team from Konoha would do their best in defeating Gatou and return the Wave country to its former glory. "Please do help yourselves to the food. I'm sorry that it may not look very appealing to you… We are kind of… short on cash…" Tsunami frowned slightly at her last words. They may not be the poorest of all people in Wave country, but they are not the richest either. The breakfast only consisted of porridge that had been added with more water so that it will produce more servings, one tiny serving of scrambled eggs for each person and plain water. Tsunami winced when Sakura said softly, "It's okay, Tsunami-san." Like she pitied the older woman.

The bridge builder decided to join in at that moment with his grandson as both appeared out of nowhere. All of them sat around the table in silence.

Sakura crinkled her nose delicately while she settled for the plain water only as the porridge did not look tempting at all. _'Never mind, I'm on a diet anyway!'_ Inner Sakura yelled, swinging her fists at nothing in particular. Sasuke was already finishing his breakfast, how he was able to achieve that, nobody knows. Kakashi however, already finished his breakfast, with his mask on.

"How did you do that?-!" Tazuna exclaimed, pointing at Kakashi, horrified.

"… Do what?" Kakashi was poring over that stupid book of his already. He was unaware of those horrified stares that the bridge builder and Sakura were giving him.

"…Never mind." The others sweat dropped.

Inari was glaring at Naruto, who was stirring his porridge with the wooden spoon subconsciously. Seeing her son's rude behavior, Tsunami chided quietly, "Inari…"

Inari stood up abruptly, causing the chair to fall back and crash onto the floor deliberately. "You will all die anyway! So, give up already!" With that loud outburst, the little boy spun and dashed back to his room, slamming the door in the process with an afterthought.

Tsunami blinked, surprised and shocked at Inari's ill manners. "I'm sorry… " The young mother began to apologize profusely, reaching out to pick up the fallen chair. "He's my son, Inari. He had been like this ever since that incident…" The woman gave a long, drawn out sigh as her heart wrenched painfully. It had been quite some time already and Inari still couldn't forget that scene…

Noticing the pained expression on his daughter's face, Tazuna started with a grave, solemn tone. "Inari was a very bright, very happy kid before…"

After telling the entire story, Tazuna heaved a sigh. "T-that's why Inari is now like this…"

Sakura nodded, giving an assuring smile to Tsunami, who returned it wearily. Sasuke merely snorted and walked away without a word. Kakashi's unmasked eye was downcast.

Naruto did not say anything to the adults and his remaining pink teammate, but started to make his way to the door without eating his breakfast at all.

"Naruto?" The silver-haired jounin raised an eyebrow. But his eye never left that perverted book of his.

"I'm going to train, Kakashi-san," Naruto replied a moment later, a rare smile gracing his pale features and it disappeared soon after. Sakura nearly thought that she had imagined it. Because, the cold and hard truth is that he hardly smiles.

* * *

Naruto grimaced slightly as the searing pain intensified. Numbly, his trembling fingers made their way to his shirt and slowly lifting up the fabric covering his abdomen to reveal the seal that had contained the Kyuubi within him. However, the seal was burning brightly, seemingly like searing, hot liquid that was poured on his skin to form a seal.

The blonde was laying on the grass in the forest that was near Tazuna's house, concentrating on breathing. He remembered how this excruciating agony had come about when he was around five years old, when he had accepted the offer of being trained by the Hokage and when _he_ decided to step into his life.

He knew what chakra was about; yet, it often hurt to use it, especially if he had used a large amount of it. He knew, ever since he was taught how to use it.

Sitting up, he quickly collected his thoughts and tried to remain as calm as possible when he put on his icy and uncaring façade again as he heard light, trained, stealthy footsteps nearing him. And of course, Naruto could feel a possible threat when sensing that the person walking towards him had an air of icy cold fury and was emitting small amounts of killer-intent. _I've been too wrapped up in my thoughts that I haven't sense anyone coming? _Naruto chided himself inwardly, cursing his own blissful ignorance.

"It's chilly out here, you may get a cold just sitting down there," a kind voice warned him lightly as the speaker knelt down and caress a small yellow flower that Naruto discovered it growing all over the Wave country. While sitting merely two feet away from the stranger, Naruto's tone carried an edgy, sinister tone that could not have portrayed him as a teen. "And who are you?"

The feminine boy turned towards that dark tone, putting down his basket, careful not to crush any of those precious herbs. _'Yes, I remember you from yesterday.' _The stranger smiled, "I mean no harm, Naruto-kun. My name is Haku."

"…And how do you know my name?"

"We've grown to fear of your name and many missing-nins would never want to encounter you, Naruto-kun," Haku answered, shrugging. "I know you're from the Assassin Elites Squad in ANBU from your village, isn't it?"

"…"

"You're the youngest to enter that squad," Haku stated, picking up, yet another recognized herb.

"And how do you know so much about me?" Naruto asked with the slightest hint of unease and anxiety.

"We've done our research, Naruto-kun."

"We?" Naruto confirmed his suspicions. So, this is the guy who had rescued Zabuza from his death by pretending to be a hunter-nin. _'That means, Zabuza is still alive; and by the looks of Haku picking herbs, it means that he will be returning to heal him.'_

"I've said too much," Haku quickly blurted out, reaching for his basket, wanting a hasty getaway. Naruto's overwhelming killer-intent froze him to the spot, rooted to the ground.

"Sorry, you've become a liability." Naruto held a kunai against Haku's neck. His tender neck. "You will only interrupt us in our mission."

Haku struggled to say something, but nothing came out of his mouth as the steel of the kunai glinted in the sunlight. _'So, this is how it ends?' _

Naruto was about to raise the kunai and slash it against the boy's throat when Haku whispered, almost inaudible. "Do you have someone dear to you?" Naruto was dumbfounded, and the kunai remained in his hands, raised above the quiet, mysterious boy. The demon vessel did not know what had stopped him in finishing this strange ninja. He had killed many before… So why? A part of him wanted to listen to Haku's last words. He had not done that before. _Because you have a weak spot, _a voice called out to him.

"I beg your pardon?" Naruto inquired, barely concealing the curiosity in his voice.

"Do you have someone dear to you?" Haku repeated his question, an odd casualness and calmness creeping into his tone. "Because if you do, you will be truly strong."

"No," Naruto answered stoically. If he really had someone dear, then it would be _him_, but everything wasn't about _him _anymore. _He _had left Naruto in that cursed village, left him in that village to rot. Naruto raised his voice louder, so that he could believe in his own lies too. "I do not have any people who are dear to me." _How about the Hokage?_ That voice irritated him again.

"But-" Haku began to protest, but Naruto did not give him a chance to. "I will give you another chance to survive. But, I know we will still meet, and this time, we will be equals on the battlefield. You will use everything you have to defeat me, and I will do the same to you," Naruto said tightly and Haku spun around to face him, to find him not there anymore.

* * *

Sakura reached the top of the tree easily, and nearly wanted to punch her fists in the air and yell in triumph but halted when she realized, in disappointment that _her_ Sasuke was still trying his best to reach the top, perspiration lining on his forehead. She saw Sasuke running up the tree, applying too much chakra in his feet every time he tried, and ended up achieving a few big steps on the poor tree trunk before landing onto the ground with a back flip.

Kakashi was leaning against one of the tree trunks that were saved from being tortured by the two genin, giggling furiously into his orange book. Sakura pouted when she realized that nobody had seen her finish the exercise. She wanted at least, a flicker of recognition in the dark avenger's eyes or a proud pat on her back from her perverted sensei. But nobody was there to congratulate her; nobody there to see her achievement in doing an exercise that apparently not even Sasuke was able to do. Sakura's smile faltered as she hopped off the thick, sturdy branch of the tree and landed with a graceful somersault.

The pink genin sat down as she watched Sasuke's eyes blazing with determination when he tried again, and again with the bitter taste of failure over and over. She knew about the little competition that Sasuke now had with Naruto, but this time, it was trying to get Naruto's recognition. Of course, the blonde was unaware of all these. Sakura knew, because, Sasuke had admitted his weakness to her when Naruto was knocked out cold and resting in the bed within the protection of Tazuna's house.

"_I want to be as strong as him," Sasuke muttered under his breath._

"_But, Sasuke-kun, you're really strong already!" Sakura exclaimed, that brought her knees to her chest. "I'm the weakest of all of us; I should be the one who should be wanting to be strong…" _So that you can recognize me…

Sakura, wrapped up in her own deep thoughts, was slightly surprised when she became conscious of her surroundings to see Sasuke towering over her, calling out her name.

"Sakura?"

"Ah, yes, s-sorry Sasuke-kun," Sakura stuttered, managing a weak smile when she saw her crush looking at her with a little hint of concern. She shook her head furiously. _You still have to earn his recognition! He's only concerned about you because then, you wouldn't be a burden to everybody! _Inner-Sakura screamed at her. "W-what was your question?"

"Um, can you, um, give me some tips on how to finish this exercise?" It was the first time Sakura saw Sasuke so flustered, seemingly embarrassed that he could not get the whole thing right.

Sakura gave him one of her best smiles, "Yeah, you see, you have to put your chakra…" She began explaining and she noticed, with a blush, that it was the first time that Sasuke gave her a hundred percent of concentration and attention on her.

* * *

Naruto found it pretty disappointing to find Zabuza, back into action as he leapt away from an attack coming from Kakashi. Then, there he was, that ninja that he had let go a day ago, trapping Sasuke in a dome made of mirrors, torturing his teammate.

_Maybe I should have just killed you. I knew you are a liability. _Naruto frowned. _And I haven't healed completely yet… Now, I can only use up to twenty-five percent of my full potential…But… Never mind…_

"Are you stupid? You will get us both killed!" Sasuke nearly wanted to shout at his dumb, very dumb blond friend here as Naruto entered the mirror thingy shortly after he did. But gazing over his injuries- the cuts and bruises he had all over his body- he decided against it. Sasuke settled for a nice, long glare at his blond teammate.

"It's nice to see you join us here, Naruto-kun," the mirror ninja spoke, trying not to show his fear for the blonde, but his tone spoke volumes for him. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. _This guy is afraid of Naruto… Let's see… How did he know Naruto's name?_

"Yes… I've let you lived, so I shall end your pain, right now," Naruto was now in front of Haku.

_What, how? _Haku's mind registered. But, he had a hostage to use now-Sasuke. He need not worry of his failure, because, mainly, that will be Zabuza's downfall and he will make sure that he will be there to prevent it…

Noticing the smile on Haku's face, Sasuke sensed something amiss and there: A barrage of senbon was flying towards him and the pain and agony started all over again.

Sakura's hand shook violently, her sweaty palms threatened to let the kunai slip off from her. _Focus, Sakura, focus! _Sakura willed herself to. She was only there, holding a kunai and putting up a brave front when her sensei was facing one missing-nin and Sasuke, Naruto facing another.

She did not want to be weak. She wished she could somehow participate in the fight too. But a thought nagged at her at the back of her mind: Who will protect your client then?

She knew she had the most important job to do because the mission was all about having Tazuna safe and healthy in Wave country so that he can finish building his bridge.

But she still couldn't shake off the feeling that something bad was going to happen soon…

"Well, now that both of us are here, we can finally fight in peace without having that brat of yours interrupting," Zabuza smirked. Kakashi merely remained silent as he took out a scroll.

"Now, now, what are we going to do?" With that, Zabuza uttered some words and a nice, thick mist enveloped the whole area. _Now, now, isn't this fun?_

Kakashi did not even blink. He, too, decided to play his cards, nicely and well planned out.

Dogs filled the whole arena.

"Sharingan!" That's it! He had awoken the bloodline that was sleeping deep within him! _Now, let's see who call the shots… Naruto… _Sasuke smirked.

Naruto dodged the needles of the masked 'hunter-nin', without having a single scratch on him. "Haku-san, you know we should end this sooner or later…"

"ARGH! Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu! (Fire release: Great Fireball Technique)" A ball of fire erupted from Sasuke's parted lips. His eyes widened as Haku stepped out of the mirror… And needles flew at his direction.

_He changed his target to Sasuke! _Naruto realized and quickly run towards his teammate but was too late as many of the needles struck Sasuke even when the blonde had put up a barrier with an Earth jutsu.

Sasuke fell in slow motion, as life flashed in front of him. _Am I going to die so soon? I haven't got my revenge… yet… _Fresh blood began to trickle down the edge of his lips, which were now slowly taking a tinge of a blue shade. _…Naruto… Itachi…_ His eyes closed as Sasuke welcomed the darkness that was slowly overwhelming him and the pain was slowly fading, slowly fading… All he could feel now was numbness and very cold, very, very cold…

"You do know the consequences of that, Haku-san," Naruto bored his own azure blue eyes into those hidden eyes beneath the mask.

Haku laughed a little, despite the heavy, choking atmosphere that had revealed the truth to the young ninja that he had just killed, no, _murdered _someone in cold blood. But he knew better than that. "Yes, I do know, Naruto-kun."

Haku blinked when everything seemed to be fast-forwarded and Naruto was up, in front of him in a flash. "What-" _… Now I know why Zabuza-san is so afraid of him… When Zabuza-san talked about him… His eyes were shrouded with anxiety and fear… Now I know… _Haku smiled and took of his mask, letting it slide off his hand.

"I guess I've to end it like this, Haku-san. If you weren't a ninja, if you weren't someone who had crossed my way," Naruto frowned. This is getting harder and harder to do each day. "Then, maybe," a smile tugged playfully at Naruto's lips. "Maybe you wouldn't have suffered at all."

_Blood. A LOT of blood. Okaasan… Otousan… I-I…_

Haku closed his eyes, accepting defeat. _Sorry, Zabuza-san… I-I… _Haku's mind quickly registered another thing. _Zabuza-san is in danger!_

"It's my pleasure meeting you, Naruto-kun… If we are meeting under different circumstances, maybe, maybe we can be friends…" Haku played with the word, 'maybe' too. Life is just so unpredictable, isn't it? But now, he had a job to do. Haku would not allow someone dear to him, important to him die. He will help Zabuza-san achieve his dreams, even if it may cost him his death.

"But, I can't die yet," Haku struggled to control his emotions again. _Blood… A lot of blood… _"I-I've to save-" His words were cut short.

Naruto applied chakra to his kunai and hand and impaled the paling boy's chest. "Friends?" Naruto echoed uncertainly. The words that Haku had held on desperately, telling the blond ex-ANBU that he had wanted to actually _know_ him, know him as a friend, under different circumstances, under another new situation. _If only you weren't a ninja, Haku-san_, Naruto thought bitterly.

"I'm sorry, Haku-san. But I'm sure that Kakashi-san had…"

"N-No…" Haku whispered as the mischievous wind ruffled his hair and a pregnant silence settled between the two of the ninjas.

"I'm sorry," Naruto repeated as Haku's tears slid down his face and his eyes slowly dulled and they stared blankly into Naruto's own blue orbs. The eyes were lifeless and dead.

Slowly, gently, Naruto withdrew his bloodied fist from the stiff corpse that was becoming a burden. He muttered, yet another soft, almost inaudible apology, "I'm sorry", laced with a tiny hint of bitterness and sadness. Naruto did not feel regretful, but sorry for the person who was still young and had a bright future ahead of him, who even had dreams that would now never be fulfilled.

Yet, he died in the hands of Naruto because of an unfinished mission, one that promised their deaths later on, even if they _did_ finish their job well.

_Many will die in the hands of Gatou anyway_, Naruto thought acrimoniously, thinking about the man who monopolized the Wave country and many important heavy and light industries around the world, making the greedy non-ninja to be filthily rich and successful. But being one who did his research, Naruto knew that Gatou used dirty tricks, bribed authorities and pulled strings here and there to actually make his way up to become the successful person he was.

Naruto smirked. The guy would not see his own pathetic downfall coming.

Laying the body tenderly on the ground like it was fragile glass, Naruto knelt down and sighed. Then, with his eyes downcast, Naruto reminisced the scene a few minutes ago how Haku had desperately wanted to go save Zabuza from Naruto's jounin teacher, Kakashi, how his eyes held a fraught and distracted look in them, which had actually motivated Naruto to have a debate with himself whether to let him go.

But that would result in at least the death of Kakashi. Naruto would not risk the lives of his comrades.

Then, he remembered the pure, genuine sincerity in Haku's voice. _"If we'd met in different times, maybe we could be friends…" _He gave a sideway glance at the still figure.

"Rest in peace, Haku-san." With that, the blonde used his still clean arm to gently close Haku's eyes wordlessly.

Haku looked calm and at peace.

A tranquil moment settled between the both of them, one on Earth and one in heaven.

* * *

From a distance away, as the fog had lifted, Sakura had seen Sasuke's fallen body lying on the ground, immobile and seemingly lifeless. She felt so confused, so afraid. She was scared that her crush would leave her forever, terrified that she would be all alone again.

Then she remembered the bell test with Kakashi in which the jounin had tricked her with a genjutsu and letting her believe that Sasuke had died. _What if this isn't genjutsu anymore? _But Sakura refused to believe that.

"Let's go see him together," their client suggested, feeling the trembling hand of the girl in his own. He knew with a start that Sakura's attention was solely on Sasuke. "Then you won't be defying your teacher's orders of protecting me, ne?"

The kunoichi nodded numbly, cold sweat lining on her forehead as anxiety and fear ate away at her heart. Without a word, they were both at the side of Sasuke. They did not seem to notice the deaths of Zabuza and Haku. Sakura's main focus was Sasuke at that moment.

Picking up the brunette's hand, Sakura shook her head dumbly, her pink bangs shaking from her movement. "His hand is cold…" A tear had begun to leak out of her eyes, again. But without allowing her emotions to have a say in all these things happening around her, Sakura swiped furiously at her eyes to prevent any tears from flowing down her cheeks.

"This really isn't any genjutsu, anymore…"

Tazuna eyed her, his eyes decided to be soft and caring for the first time. Knowing that this young kunoichi he had hired was trying not to cry, Tazuna sighed dramatically.

Sometimes, when you were up against Gatou, there would be inevitable deaths that would be resulted in any battles with Gatou's lackeys. But Tazuna understood that this may be the first death of a friend to the pink-haired girl and he knew that she was still young and may not know all the pain and hardships of life and death.

Then the bridge builder remembered the way in which Sakura had looked at Sasuke and giggled furiously. Tazuna had smiled with his daughter winking at him and Kakashi had shrugged, saying that love in teenage years was unavoidable.

"You can cry for all you want, little girl. You don't have to mind about me," the bridge builder deadpanned, patting her shoulder understandingly.

"I-I won't c-cry," Sakura was restraining her emotions. "W-when I was in the ninja academy, I s-scored full marks in all the written tests… I can memorize all of the hundred and more rules of ninjas…" her voice became much steadier. "Whenever any questions about the rules pop up, I would write down the answers easily."

Tazuna nodded to show that he was listening to Sakura's words.

"Then, one day, a question popped up in a class quiz, asking, _'What's the rule of number twenty-five in the rules of ninjas?'_ and I still wrote down the answer confidently, knowing that I would've gotten it correct."

"What was the rule?" Tazuna inquired, his curiosity getting the better of him. Then he realized the meaning of the idiom, 'curiosity killed the cat'. He wished he had never asked.

"Ninjas should remain aloof and composed at all times and should not show their emotions in any kind of situations," Tears were starting to flow down Sakura's cheeks. "Always make your mission as your first priority… And keep your emotions in check and never cry at any time…"

_I-Is this the life of a ninja? This is too cruel…_ Tazuna mused, shaking his head.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" a voice boomed out, causing Team Seven to look at the enormous crowd in surprise. Tazuna merely stared at the speaker, his face flushed from anger and his eyes held a dangerous glint in them, which seemed to be promising the man excruciating pain.

Gatou walked leisurely towards Naruto and Haku's motionless body with his armed bodyguards, a mixture of ninjas and thugs behind him; some laughed like the entire situation was entertaining and amusing and several were looking smug and smirking at the various hired Konoha shinobi and their client.

Gatou lifted his leg and stepped on Haku's face forcefully, grinning like a wild man. "Good that this boy is dead. Now I wouldn't need to dirty my hands in getting rid of him and his friend over there," Gatou jerked his head, indicating Zabuza's body which laid in a heap of gory mess on the bridge.

A hand flung itself onto the throat of the obese man, wrapping its fingers tightly around Gatou's delicate neck.

"I dare you to say it again," Naruto said calmly, not releasing the grip on Gatou. The blonde had lifted the man off the ground only by his neck, with little effort. Gatou's lackeys began to close on him, muttering expletives and threats. Tension mounted and silence was lingering in the air.

"I dare you to say it again," Naruto repeated as Gatou's eyes darted from the blonde and to his lackeys, his face gradually turning purple from the lack of oxygen as Naruto steadily cut it off. Perspiration beaded his head and Gatou knew that this kid was serious.

"H-how dare you try to harm our leader!" a determined and brave ninja emerged from within the disorganized crowd, kunai and shuriken laid ready in his hands.

Without batting an eye, Naruto threw a kunai with his free hand, which nobody had seen him taking out from his weapon holster, in the direction of the assaulter and it lodged deeply within the heart of the opponent.

All hell broke lose.

* * *

Meanwhile as the battle between Gatou's lackeys and Naruto was on, a man with a cloak decorated with red clouds stood at the far end of the bridge, melted into the shadows and was observing Team Seven.

A pair of Sharingan was spinning wildly on the man's face. "Naruto-kun, you've improved so much…" he breathed as he observed the battle taking place.

He was smiling.


	6. Meeting Foreigners

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is beta-ed by Erugenel on 29th October 2006.

**Carnage**

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* * *

**

**Chapter Six: Meeting Foreigners**

"Hyahh!" All of Gatou's underlings shouted in unison because they only had one common enemy: Naruto.

Realizing how the matter had gone out of control, Sakura stood up shakily and tried to get to her blond teammate to assist him. She _tried_.

Kakashi, with his last, remaining chakra left within his chakra system, did a simple hand seal and created at least a thousand clones.

That scared their enemies shitless. Apparently, they could not differentiate if the clones were merely an illusion or real. With more shrieks and yelling, now accompanied with Kakashi's efforts of trying to stifle his laughter, the little flies under Gatou were no more. They ran away from the bridge, not giving a care if they had collected their money for either the mission they had done for Gatou or in the bodyguards' cases, salary.

Naruto finally released his firm grip on Gatou who slumped onto the floor immediately, gasping and breathing in the fresh, sweet air. His eyes, however, held the look of defeat. He now knew that those people he had hired were nothing but a bunch of fools, caring more about their own useless lives than him, or even money.

Naruto kicked him in Gatou's thigh and demanded in a low tone, "Apologize to them." Gatou knew the 'them' the kid referred to. They were Haku and Zabuza.

"Over my dead body, kid," Gatou grunted, done with all of this pushing around. This kid would pay dearly once he managed to get the hell out of that stupid bridge and inform his hired, high-rank ninjas of this blonde. _Man, he doesn't even look thirteen!_ Gatou complained inwardly, contemplating about how he could have lost to this kid.

"All right, I will grant your wish," Naruto retorted coolly. Ignoring the stares that his team, Kakashi and their client were giving him, the blonde walked over to Zabuza and picked up the sword effortlessly. Carefully, he unsheathed the sword and gave it a quick look-over.

Gatou's eyes widened. He nearly swore.

With a satisfied smile, Naruto simply tossed the sword. Gatou heaved a sigh of relief- before discovering that the sword was heading towards him.

It was spinning at top speed, with such a high velocity and furious intensity that no jet planes could match. Gatou scrambled to his feet, in desperation to leave that very spot in a hurry, for fear that the almighty sword that belonged to one of the seven swordsmen would strike him.

But it was too late. A bloodcurdling screech was heard from the man and with a slice- the sword chopped Gatou's head cleanly, separating the head from the rest of the body in haste.

It was done in only a few seconds.

"N-naruto?" Sakura asked, concern evident in his voice. She looked around her in a state of shock. _Did Naruto kill Zabuza's partner too? He's so unfazed by all this kills!_

"You do not have to worry, Sakura-san. Sasuke-san is merely unconscious due to loss of much chakra and fatigue. He will wake up shortly," Naruto then walked towards Kakashi, looking deep into his eyes. Nodding, Kakashi said, "Let's bury Zabuza and Haku… They deserve that much."

_You will be the first and last person I consider a friend, Haku-san_, Naruto thought, as he laid Haku beside Zabuza. He remembered the rage and annoyance he had felt when Gatou had treated Haku with much disrespect. He knew, deep down inside his heart, he did actually accepted Haku to be his friend.

_Can you hear me?_ Naruto mused as snow fell down from the darkening sky, covering the bridge in a frosty layer.

Naruto smiled.

_I know you can._

* * *

Naruto stared at the weird, square-shaped rock that had exactly four sharp edges with two holes on it. And he stared. "What are you doing?"

"Hehe," the voice was muffled as it traveled through the thin, flimsy cardboard that was colored with much effort to make it resemble the color of a rock. But it did not, in the least, _look _like a rock. The box was lifted and three small children emerged from it, brushing dust off themselves and one with goggles stood, crossing his arms across his chest, looking smug.

"You're indeed a ninja. You can even see through our clever disguise! You are worthy to be my opponent!" the boy exclaimed, smiling a toothless grin.

"Who are you?" Naruto inquired, suspicious of the three kids in front of him who were obviously much younger than him. If anybody really wants to get him killed, they would not underestimate him and send three children to get the job done, right? But he did not let his guard down and prepared for any assaults that may come from the three kids.

_Or maybe, they are decoys_, Naruto mused. He could feel some chakra signatures nearby, one of an average size, two of higher than average and one more… Naruto narrowed his eyes. That one chakra signature felt like at least jounin level, or more.

"I'm Konohamaru!" the boy, Konohamaru snapped back, slightly surprised that there was _someone _who did not know him. His two friends were standing there, forgotten. But they did not mind at all. This made Naruto even more wary of them.

"Who sent you?" the blonde demanded in a soft, yet, menacing tone, ice underlining his question.

"What?" Konohamaru could barely conceal his shock. _What is this guy talking about? Is he playing Ninja with us?_

"I said, who sent you?" the blonde asked again and the girl beside Konohamaru shivered in fear at the tone that Naruto was using on them. They had been tailing this blond boy for only five minutes! It had been all Konohamaru's idea to follow Naruto because they had heard from a boy named Sasuke that he was strong and he had dreamt of defeating him. With much determination, Konohamaru had decided that Naruto would be their training opponent who would play with them Ninja so that they can become much stronger and defeat stronger opponents.

Well, who would turn down a Hokage's grandson's request? It was what Moegi thought.

"Stop it, Naruto-kun, you're scaring them!" Sakura stood in front of Naruto as if to shield the trembling children from harm. She had happened to walk by after eating lunch with Ino when she discovered Naruto having a run in with three kids. _Why would Naruto take three children so seriously?_

Running a hand through his blond hair, Naruto sighed and replied, "I'm sorry. I-I thought…" He let his words trail off but he was high on alert again as he felt the unfamiliar jounin level chakra signature near them.

"What is this? A road blockage?" a boy around Naruto's age said coolly, wearing like a black suit and his forehead sported a forehead protector, which had a shape of an hourglass on it. Behind his back was a huge bandaged unknown object and on top of it looked mysteriously like _hair_. Sakura shuddered at the thought of it.

"It's okay, Kankuro. They are just kids," a blond girl coaxed, what seemed like a gigantic fan was strapped to her back. On her neck, however, was the same hitai-ate that Kankuro was wearing on his forehead.

"Well, he's blocking my way!" Kankuro replied, frustrated, waving his hand in front of the group of Konoha citizens, referring to Konohamaru. He took a step forward, his huge, intimidating self was frightening the hell out of the three kids and Sakura was apparently dumbfounded.

"_You_ are the one blocking _my_ way," Naruto said, his cold, blue eyes piercing into Kankuro's. Kankuro could feel small amounts of killer intent leaking out of the blonde standing in front of him and he was rooted to the spot he was standing on. _Who is he? He's scaring the shit out of me!_

_He's cute! _The blond girl thought, blushing furiously.

"Stop it, Kankuro. You're disgracing our nation. Let's go, Temari," a nonchalant voice commanded from above and everyone raised their heads to find a red-haired boy standing upside down on a tree. His forehead wore a kanji, 'ai' sign, which meant love. A big gourd was strapped on his back.

Sakura sweat dropped. _Why are these foreigners strapping bizarre, enormous weapons on their backs? Is it a trend?_

The redhead disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves rustled before reappearing in front of the group of people. Averting his attention to Naruto, the redhead nodded his head to address him. "Who are you?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. This was the jounin level chakra signature that he had sensed just now. This redhead in front of him is _that_ strong?

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. How about you?"

"Who? Me?" Temari asked, excited that a cute guy was asking for her name.

"I know your name is Temari," Naruto smiled a little. Temari nearly did a little dance on the spot. "I want to know his name, too." He nodded at the redhead.

"I am Sabaku No Gaara," Gaara responded, trying his best not to smirk at her sister's reaction. It was quite amusing that Temari was falling head over heels over someone she only knew for like, a minute.

With Konohamaru and his friends still shaking with fright, Gaara uttered a quiet, 'Let's go' and the sand-nins were gone.

_This is interesting_, Naruto thought.

* * *

"Haaaaaaaaiiiiii," Sakura sighed the umpteenth time, obviously bored to death. They were waiting for almost two hours already and still there was no sign of their teacher around. Her eyes found their way to Sasuke. He had not talked to them ever since the incident on the bridge in Wave country. Did he feel inferior compared to Naruto because he had already killed three on the mission?

But even if it would have been a free kill, Sakura would not have been able to kill her opponents because she knew she would not have handled it well. But to Sakura, it seemed that Naruto had killed countless times before and that was why he could handle deaths well. That was what infuriated Sasuke.

Naruto was sitting on the bridge, handling a really annoying pink-haired teammate and a really quiet brooding teammate very well. He had decided to ignore them completely until Kakashi came along to tell them about their chuunin exams. He had already known long ago from some of his old colleagues in his ANBU squad that Konoha would organize the next chuunin exam this year.

And he was quite anticipating it because it had been years since he had taken his chuunin exams. It would be fun to fight stronger opponents this exam. It would be fun especially if it was the redhead he had met not long ago. He figured that the Sabaku No Gaara would be a good opponent.

The thing that had been nagging at him ever since he met Gaara was that something quite… _Familiar _about him that he could not exactly put his finger on it.

"Yo!" their teacher decided to turn up after two hours, fifteen minutes and forteen seconds, as Sakura had recorded and it was the earliest time that Kakashi had arrived.

"That's a record time," Sakura muttered before breaking into her daily shouting routine: "WHERE WERE YOU IN THE LAST TWO HOURS?-! DO YOU KNOW WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU, DAMN IT!"

"Maa, maa. Well, you see, I got lost on-" Kakashi started explaining with a solemn look on his face when Sakura screamed, "Liar! How can you act so serious when you're always lying?"

"Well, anyways, I know it's pretty sudden, but I would like to inform you guys that I've promote your guys' names to participate in this year's chuunin exams," Kakashi changed the subject abruptly and was relieved that Sakura did not pursue his lateness matter anymore. However, Sasuke, Naruto and she were pretty much eager to hear more information from their jounin teacher, for once.

"Here, these are the forms. You just need to sign on it and be at classroom 301, tomorrow afternoon. I've just suggested your names. If you don't want to go, nobody will force you," Kakashi smiled. "Well, bye then!" With that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sasuke smirked. "The chuunin exams, huh? I will see you guys outside the academy tomorrow then. I will return home first."

After Sasuke had left, Sakura walked alone with Naruto. Fidgeting, she felt unease welling inside her heart. _What if I'm the first to be kicked out of the exam? Will it affect Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun too? What if I don't do well? What if I don't turn up and then they wouldn't be able to participate too? What if…_

"Sakura-san, it's okay, if you turn up tomorrow, you will be fine," Naruto assured. It was the first time he was comforting someone and it was like he had done it for years. It felt _right_ to be assuring a girl that she would do fine in the chuunin exams if she did not have self-confidence, right? "Even if you don't turn up tomorrow, it's okay. Don't put pressure on yourself."

Sakura looked up at Naruto with unshed tears glistening in her green round orbs. "Thanks, Naruto." Her eyes held determination and perseverance. "I will turn up tomorrow, for sure."

Naruto gave her a faint smile.

"I hope so."

The next afternoon, Naruto was pleasantly surprised to see his pink-haired teammate exactly at the place they had planned the day before to meet at for the chuunin exams. He had thought that Sakura would not turn up, afraid of risking her life and ashamed that she did not have enough self confidence to join the exams with Sasuke and himself.

Deciding to boost her poise, Naruto walked up to his comrade briskly and greeted her with smile and a polite 'good morning'. Sakura smiled weakly before mumbling the same words that Naruto had said to her.

For a moment, silence settled between both of them and almost in unison, Naruto said, "Sakura-san?" as Sakura said, "Umm…"

Sakura blushed furiously, her cheeks painted with a shade of deep crimson as she softly uttered, "You go first."

Naruto shook his head. "You should say first."

Taking in a deep breath, Sakura said all in one breath, "?" With that, Sakura turned away feeling awkward. Well, she had not expected herself to turn up for the exams but she had told herself to at least to do this for the sake of Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun. Yesterday, she had tossed and turned in her bed for almost two hours before coming into a decision that she would join the exams along with her teammates to become an official chuunin. But till now, she was hesitating. It was like there was a thick cloud in her brain that made her mind unable to function properly enough for her to think clearly without any mistakes.

"Sorry, Sakura-san, I don't understand what you were saying," Naruto replied, almost sheepishly as he looked at the pink girl with a tiny smile.

Staring at the wide, blue orbs of Naruto, Sakura found herself mesmerized by the beautiful shade of the cerulean of his eyes. They were taking her breath away, literally.

"I-I," Sakura struggled to regain her ability to speak. She then blushed, "You don't have to always call me Sakura-san here, Sakura-san there… It's very… Formal, you know. Just call me Sakura." She offered a smile at the confused boy.

"Sakura?"

"Yep."

"O-okay… S-saku-" Naruto's words were cut off promptly as Sasuke strode hurriedly towards them. "Are you guys ready for the exam?" He was indeed, oblivious to the awkwardness between his teammates.

Sakura merely nodded dumbly and Naruto answered, "If you are."

* * *

"Don't you think you're going too far?" a girl whose hair was tied up into two cute buns demanded, helping her friend up. Her friend who wore a hideous green spandex suit rubbed a sore and swollen spot on his cheek stood up unsteadily with the help of the girl and a creepy genin with pupil-less eyes added with unmistakable venom in his tone, "We just want to get across."

"Well, you guys are just too weak! You will fail the chuunin exams anyways… You can just give up now," one of the unknown ninja who was blocking what seemed to be the only way to classroom 301 said, a smug look on his face. His partner smirked, "Yeah."

"P-Please… We just want to get a-across…" the girl with the buns pleaded. The onlookers were now pondering whether to help this three ninjas who were apparently fighting a losing battle.

But the unknown ninja merely smacked her on the face and she almost flew to the other side of the room. _Almost_.

It was Sasuke Uchiha who supported her gently so the girl would not fall. Blinking stupidly, the girl almost gaped. She stuttered a 'thank you' and straightened herself up. Many genin that formed the crowd were already yelling foul words at the man who pushed the girl away like, 'How can you bully a girl?' and 'That's so cruel…'

"Well, we are only doing this for your own good," the partner of the unknown ninja said. "The chuunin exam is a tough one and even the two of us had participated a few times already and couldn't pass the tests at all."

Nodding, the unknown ninja continued for his friend, "There are many risks to take and there are even deaths in this exam-" He was immediately interrupted by a girl.

"Well, we are willing to take risks. So, can you remove this illusion already? I think it's plain weird that nobody had noticed it already," Sakura retorted coolly, waving her left hand around the corridor. "This is all an illusion. We are only on the second floor!"

Naruto smiled at her teammate who had discovered the genjutsu early. Maybe it had something got to do with the bell test with Kakashi… Maybe Sakura had not wanted to take chances…

"Ah, you've noticed the genjutsu…" the unknown ninja said, smirking. The genjutsu was quickly removed; leaving the former board that said classroom '301' was now '201'.

"That's good, Sakura. You should be the one who realized the genjutsu the earliest since your observation skills and knowledge of genjutsu are the best in our class!" Sasuke remarked, turning to Sakura. In turn, noticing the rewarding smile that she had received from the Uchiha, her eyes held a certain degree of determination. "Of course! I've noticed long ago."

"Being too arrogant will get you no where, kids," the partner of the unknown ninja snapped and raised his fist to deliver a forceful punch to Sakura- to be blocked be the boy dressed in the disgusting, tight green suit.

Catching glimpses of Sakura at the corner of his eye, the green kid asked, "Your name's Sakura, right?"

Sakura nodded. "And you?"

"My name's Rock Lee." The said boy had fire in his eyes as he threw the arm of the assaulter away, hurling him backwards to his friend before turning his attention to the Haruno girl completely. "You'll date with me, won't you?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. This guy had saved her from a serious injury just now, but she could not help but smile a little as she saw the cute determination in Lee's eyes. "Well, if you want to date me, at least you got to… _Buy flowers or something! _And not under such circumstances!" Sakura blushed a little a fidgeted on the spot she was standing. "Well… Maybe after the chuunin exams or something…" she deadpanned him. "That is, if you're still alive."

"Yosh! The power of youth! I will kick all enemies in this exam to win your heart, Sakura-chan!" Lee shouted. The onlookers were already leaving, giving looks of distaste at Lee because of his sickening speech of love and the team of Lee and Sakura were sweat dropping in the background.

"Stop it, Lee. Let's go and prepare for the exam," the pupil-less teammate ordered, almost rudely, as he nearly dragged Lee off so to stop his nauseating words about the power of youth and such to Sakura.

While Lee's team was walking away, Sasuke yelled, "Hey, the one without pupils. What's your name?" The said boy spun to address the silent avenger.

"I am Hyuuga Neji. And you?" _Humph… What an interesting fellow…_

"Uchiha Sasuke."

When both teams were about to depart with a wailing Lee in the backdrop, the girl with buns questioned hastily, blushing throughout, "I'm Tenten! What's your name?" Her eyes were on Naruto. _Ah… What a cute guy! Is he single?_

Giving her a strange look, Naruto replied icily, "Uzumaki Naruto."

The two ninjas who had caused a rather huge chaos and distress a few minutes ago 'poofed' into their original selves after using a clever henge to disguise themselves. "So, that was Naruto-taicho's teammates?" the one with bandages around his face asked his friend, glancing at the two teams, which were leaving for the first exam. He had known Naruto from his brother who had joined the same squad as Naruto with the small teenager leading the squad. From his brother, he had heard many great things about the kid. He could never know how much power that such a young person could harness.

"Interesting," the friend replied. Both looked through the gap between the doors again. Naruto had turned his head around, staring at the two with his piercing blue eyes while still walking straight.

The one with bandages winked happily while Sakura asked, "What's the matter, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto shook his head and replied, "Nothing, Sakura. Just wondering what the first exam will be like." He was pretty excited about how this chuunin exam would turn out as the one he took a few years ago had been a pretty boring theory test. He hoped the first test would be completely different from the one he had taken.

* * *

"_I want to have a fight with you, Sasuke-kun." _Those were the words that Rock Lee had said to Sasuke a few minutes ago and now they were engaged in a furious battle, even before they had reached classroom 301. Lee had realized that Sasuke would be a really strong opponent who would be snatching his beloved Sakura-chan away and he decided to eliminate his enemies first.

Using his signature move, Lee ended the fight promptly. And resulted in the meeting of his sensei, Gai, who appeared on a huge tortoise. Or turtle. Or terrapin.

Sakura was shaking her head, as the teacher and student were in the middle of a really _heartwarming _interaction, with the occasional calls of each other's names and tears flowing from their faces dramatically.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

Team Seven had already left them so that they could continue that _heartwarming _scene for as long as they wanted. They merely wanted to hurry up and get to classroom 301 before they were late.

Sakura slid open the door, which revealed many ninjas from all sorts of countries chattering away. She took a sharp intake of oxygen. "Well, this is it."

Feeling her faith and confidence in herself slipping away already, Sakura could only think: _this entire group of people looks so strong… Am I able to defeat them?_

She felt a hand resting on her shoulder. "You can do it, Sakura," Sasuke assured. The last thing he needed was a teammate who lacked confidence in herself. Well, they are now equals. Sakura had helped him in the climbing tree exercise and now he was trying to help her regain his confidence. _Go, Sasuke_, Uchiha thought sourly as a running figure was sprinting vigorously towards his direction before engaging him into a suffocating hug.

"Sasuke-_ku_uuuuuunn! Do you know how much I've missed you?" Ino asked and ignored the heated glare that Sakura had given her. And there they were, the same old classmates in the academy. Choji was like before, munching on his chips while Shikamaru rolled his eyes and muttered, "How troublesome…"

Shino muttered a little 'hi' and Kiba shouted a 'Yo' while Hinata stuttered a greeting at Team Seven.

Ino released the grip from Sasuke and caught a glimpse at Naruto who was so painfully quiet. A sad look crossed Ino's features as she remembered what had happened months ago. Is Naruto still rejecting her? She had merely put up an act to cover up any clumsy movements that may follow if she had gone to greet Naruto first. She might not handle Naruto's nonchalance as if he had pretended that nothing had happened before.

Sakura had noticed and she only gave a weak smile at Ino. The blond girl thanked her close friend inwardly for her support.

"Maa, what do we have here?" A gray-haired teenager asked, his age approximately a few years older than Naruto. With some introductions, the guy who claimed himself to be Kabuto said, "Hey, how about I tell you some information with these nin-info cards?" The boy with the glasses then took out some cards and the nine of the rookie ninjas looked on, their curiosity piqued. "Do you guys want to know about any ninjas around here?"

Naruto decided for awhile before a name came to his mind, "Sabaku No Gaara."


	7. A Glimpse Of Death

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is beta-ed by Erugenel on 4th December 2007.

**Carnage**

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* * *

**

**Chapter Seven: A Glimpse Of Death **

Naruto thought for a while before a name came to his mind, "Sabaku No Gaara."

The gray-haired teenager's glasses glinted, as if caught in a trick of the light, hiding his eyes momentarily. He decided to play dumb and echoed the blonde's words lightly, "Sabaku No Gaara?" Of course he knew who Gaara was. It was him, after all. During the chuunin exams, the limelight would fall on him amyway. All Kabuto had to do was to wait. It was what the person he served told him.

"What are nin-info cards, anyway?" Ino piped up, almost bristling with curiosity. She pointedly ignored the fact that Naruto had actually asked a question _first_, because, for her, it was simply too difficult to forget the incident that happened in the rain. When Naruto spoke, she felt excluded from the conversation, ignored and invisible to him. She wanted, no _needed_ to make it known to him that she existed, to take this oblivious, blond boy and yell in his ear, slap his face, make aware to him that there was a girl around him going by the name of Ino, and all she wanted to do was to be his friend! She wanted to know what lay behind those cerulean eyes, the thoughts that ran through his head in the silence of night and loneliness of sleep. They seared into her, gave her the urge to know everything she could about him. Like a drug, she was always left wanting more.

Yet, Ino realized that behind those hard, cold eyes, great sorrow and hatred remained. _Your eyes are the windows to your pain, Naruto-san. Will you let me help you? Will you let me in? _She toyed with the hem of her shirt unconsciously, and pondered again and again why he chose to close up like a box in the face of camaraderie.

"Simply put, information will be burnt into the insides of the cards with a chakra symbol. I have spent four years researching and collecting information during the chuunin exams and the number of cards I have is nearing two hundred. Of course, they would appear as white, blank cards to you, but as I apply chakra to them, the information will resurface."

Most of the genin looked awed and Naruto was still shifting uncomfortably under Ino's gaze.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly and eyed the gray-haired oddly. "Do you have my nin-info card too? Sounds like you wouldn't know much, anyway. Or you wouldn't be here entering the chuunin exams at your age."

"Well, Sasuke-kun, the chuunin exam is a tough nut to break. I have already entered six times. This is my seventh. And," Kabuto leaned closely to the raven-haired boy and whispered, "I know all about you, too," Kabuto smirked, not knowing whether to be offended or amused.

Offended was because Sasuke had spoken to him like he was the dust on his shoes, not worthy to be recognised on the streets. Amused was because the naïveté of the avenger had unwittingly led him into the lion's den.

Kabuto laughed inwardly. _You don't know who you are dealing with, Sasuke-kun…_

"Hn. Whatever. What about that Sabaku No Gaara?" Sasuke retorted, slightly nervous that this Kabuto had just claimed he knew _all _about him. _Does he know about Itachi, then? And who is this Gaara? Has Naruto seen him before? What exactly is Naruto hiding from me?_

Sasuke's musings were cut short as Kabuto answered in an incongruously friendly tone, "Oh yes. I nearly forgot. Let me get his nin-info card." With that, Kabuto shuffled his cards and picked out one randomly, as if he could tell which was the correct card without even looking at the name and description. Applying chakra on the blank card, the information began to appear immediately.

"Let me see, this is Gaara from the hidden sand… Missions accomplished would be eight C-ranked and one B-ranked… Wow, a genin completing a B-ranked mission… Not bad… But for a ninja from other countries, I don't have any other details about him… But according to my card, whenever he returns from a mission, there would be no injuries on him at all. No scratches, no bruises." Kabuto read, and almost wanted to burst out laughing at the unreadable expression on Sasuke's face.

Sakura nodded vigorously, then, looked at Kabuto with much interest and anticipation. "What about Rock Lee?"

Doing the same practiced ritual on another completely empty card, Kabuto read out, "Rock Lee… One year older than you guys… Missions accomplished would be twenty D-ranked and eleven C-ranked. His sensei would be Gai and he only specializes on taijutsu… His teammates would be Hyuuga Neji and Tenten… This would be their first time entering the chuunin exams too…"

Taking in a deep breath, Sakura contemplated silently, _Only specializes in taijutsu? So the moves he had used on Sasuke-kun earlier on when he had challenged Sasuke-kun to a fight…_

"Any more?" Kabuto asked, almost going to prepare to keep his cards.

Nearly surprising his teammates and shocking the other few rookie genin, Sasuke did the unpredictable and unexpected, "Do you have any information about Uzumaki Naruto?" Naruto merely turned to look at Sasuke, whom had his attention fixed on Kabuto. Sakura shrugged when Ino shot her friend an inquisitive look.

Kabuto smiled, adjusting his spectacles. "Naruto? Isn't he your teammate? Ah, well." Picking out yet another card and applied chakra on it, he began to recite, "Uzumaki Naruto… Missions accomplished would be eleven D-ranked, twenty-five C-ranked, thirty-six B-ranked, oh my, what do we have here… Thirty A-ranked and two S-ranked… The team leader of-"

"I think that's enough, Kabuto-san," Naruto spoke quietly, taking his nin-info card from their senior who seemed darkly gleeful and held it tightly in his clenched fist, turning around so his back faced Kabuto. "Your cards are of absolutely no accuracy. I do not remember doing so many missions before." _How could this stranger know so much about me? And all the Hokage did would make me blow my cover sooner or later… _

_But if they really knew my true identity… It wouldn't matter anyway… It always doesn't… _Naruto closed his eyes and swiftly kept the card in one of his pockets as he detected a chakra signature behind Kabuto.

"Humph, I can just narrow down the odds right now so we wouldn't have to encounter more weaklings later on…" a voice drifted nearby and the owner of it was about to strike the gray-haired teenager when everybody snapped out of their temporary lapse and reacted to it.

"Huh, w-what?" Kiba shouted dumbly.

Kabuto leaped and landed safely a distance away as two kunai lodged deeply into the floor, creating two neat holes.

"Sound…?" Sasuke inquired, staring into the forehead protector of the assailant.

As the attacker turned into a blur again to strike, a sudden force sent him flying backwards and he was rendered unconscious as his body was slammed into the wall. Hard. The force turned out to be Naruto, who had been the dark blue blur that had intercepted the sound ninja's move.

"Stop fighting, you fools!" a voice boomed out as two loud explosions were heard and as the smoke cleared with everyone in the room coughing in the background, many men, presumably to be the chuunin examiners appeared in the classroom. "Sorry for the delay. I am the first chuunin examiner, Morino Ibiki."

_

* * *

_

Sakura bit the tip of her pencil uneasily while subconsciously stroking the smooth surface of her answer sheet. The first test had turned out to be a written theory, much to Naruto's distaste, and a double 'yay' to the pink-haired girl who always seemed as if she had swallowed the whole textbook. She gave a defiant toss of her head; what was wrong with rote learning, anyway?

But the girl's attention had not been on the test at all because she had been thinking of Naruto, her teammate, for the past twenty minutes. Although the questions were difficult and tricky to interpret, they were within Sakura's abilities. Her pencil flew over the answer sheet hastily in an attempt to finish the test quickly so she could spend the rest of the given time to think quietly.

Sakura was not worrying about the test… Her mind wandered as she lay down her pencil after finishing the test. _What is Naruto hiding from us? He had killed so easily before… Had he been deceiving us when actually he wasn't technically a genin? Maybe… He was something more… But… Why would he hide something like that from us? Why would he want to be a genin then, if that's the case? Is he spying on us? _Relatively, her eyelids were becoming heavier and heavier and she could not help but to put her head down and maybe, just maybe, she could rest for a little while, just a short while…

From a distance away, Ino smirked.

* * *

The questions were quite easy to answer as Naruto pored through the contents of the last one. He knew the whole aim of the exam, anyway. But to him, the genin in the room had been doing really, really obvious ways of cheating that the examiners had been lenient enough to let them go as long as they were using rather smart tricks.

A few tables away, he could see the girl with her hair tied up into two little buns using a mirror and strings hanging from the ceiling to show the answers to her teammate, Lee who in turn, would wear his forehead protector when he got the answers. That way of cheating was extremely obvious.

A little to the left, he could see the Hyuuga Neji using his activated special bloodline to copy the answers of the person sitting in front of him. His eyes would usually unnerve other people as it could even see through many things, but to Naruto who had studied the eyes and the whole clan before when he was young, he dismissed the sick feeling in his stomach without a thought. And Sasuke was also using his bloodline to finish the test too. Naruto's heart, which was what seemed to the owner himself, was made out of steel.

But right now, he wasn't so sure.

As his heart clenched slightly when he stared at the spinning Sharingan of his teammate sideways, his mind suddenly launched itself into the memories of his own past, but Naruto could not see any images and only heard painfully familiar voices.

"_Nii-chan!"_

"_Pfft. What do you want, brat?"_

Tearing his eyes off Sasuke's eyes before he could dwell on the voices in his head, Naruto could see the redhead from the hidden sand using a bizarre jutsu to form an eye made out of sand in his hand, which would dissipate and materialize before other people who were taking the test.

And a little to his right, he could see Ino getting ready to use her family jutsu to take over her current target, Sakura. He thought of the blond girl as a kind person, but the incident had made the both of them rather awkward when they both met under some circumstances.

"_I-I like you, Naruto-kun…"_

Had Ino really meant what she said? He knew that trusting her would be like walking on a tightrope, tilt your life to your left and you will find yourself on the verge of falling; tilt your life to your right and you will lose all the view in front of you. It was a lose-lose or win-win situation but Naruto could not afford that. All his life, he had grown up knowing to do things cautiously so that there would be no mistakes.

"_Always look behind you so that you can see your mistakes." He had said._

And he hadn't. Like always. In missions, he would always do that to prevent himself being caught in a dangerous life and death situation but in his life about dealing with people, it just would not work that well.

Sighing, he decided to solve the matter at hand first. What would happen if questions arise and the incident with Kabuto arouse his teammates' suspicions?

He remembered not looking behind him. But would it have helped him in his circumstances?

Should he just tell the truth?

* * *

"All right… Now for the tenth question…" Ibiki stated in a low, dangerous tone, making many genin snap their heads up to look at him. "But firstly, you have to choose between taking the exam or not!"

Everyone present in the room gasped in astonishment at the abrupt announcement.

_Choose between taking the exam or not? _Sasuke thought, bewildered .

"Are you joking? You want us to choose between taking and not taking the exam? W-what if we choose not to take it? What happens to the tenth question?" Temari stood up, slightly enraged. _What the hell is going on?_

"If you choose not to take the exam, it will be a straight zero for you and you lose the chance to move on to the second exam. But this also means that your teammates will also lose the opportunity to enter the second exam…"

"W-what nonsense is this?" a ninja from the Hidden Village of Sound sputtered, face contorted in anger. Another courageous one stood up, giving a strangled cry, which earned many loud cheers from the genin in the room, "Of course we will take the exam!"

"Also… There's another rule…" Ibiki continued, taking in the disruption with only indifference.

_Another rule?-!_ Kiba thought seething, while Akamaru looked at him, confused.

"If one chooses to take the exam, but does not give the correct answer, he or she shall lose the opportunity of entering the chuunin exams FOREVER!" The last word echoed throughout every single genin's mind and an agonizing silence settled in the class. Fear and uncertainty from most genin could be detected from miles away.

Eventually, Ibiki smirked and said again, "Those who do not wish to attempt the exam shall raise their hands and after we have determined your identification code, you may leave the classroom with your teammates."

A wavering hand went up into the air. "I-I don't want to take the exam… Sorry guys…" Three genin left the classroom with a cloud of gloom over them.

Another was more adamant on giving up his chance to enter the second exam. "Me! I would never want to fail the exam and lose the opportunity to enter the next time!"

In total, almost half of the genin left and many paled at the number of them left in the classroom.

"All right… I announce…" Morino started and some of the more cowardly genin who had been threatened by their teammates gulped fearfully, expecting the tenth question. "… That all seventy-eight of you have just passed your first exam!"

"What!" Sakura shouted, her eyes frozen in eternal disbelief. "What do you mean we have passed our first exam? What about the tenth question?" Everyone's eyes were as huge as saucers, the orbs bulging out from their sockets like those of overgrown goldfishes.

"Well… Technically there is no tenth question," Ibiki grinned. "Or you can say that the two aforementioned choices make up the tenth question."

"What? You mean, the nine questions we have attempted just now were for nothing?" Temari spoke from her seat, her words fueling the rage in the other genin as well. Nobody understood the true purpose of the whole exam.

Or at least Naruto and Sasuke did.

_So, the nine questions from just now were just a test for us if we are able to collect information efficiently… _Sasuke mused, struck by the unexpected realization.

_Ahh… The same old trick… Cunning old man… I assure you that I nearly fell for it again… _Naruto smirked inwardly, remembering the time when he had his chuunin exam and had Ibiki as his examiner as well. Almost everybody had left the classroom that time, resulting in the low production rate of newly promoted chuunin.

But this time, this batch of genin was not so easily deceived after all.

"How can you say that the nine questions before had gone down to waste?" Ibiki replied in a cold, clipped tone. "They were to test if all of you are able to collect information efficiently. Those who made the mistake of letting us catch them cheating three times were disqualified as they were not capable to make it to chuunin level!"

Ino nearly winced at the harsh tone.

"People who can't even collection information efficiently can forget about being a ninja because no matter if you are on a mission or locked in a serious battle, information is essential and you can't afford not to know how to get it. If you do not have the necessary information, you may be unable to carry out the mission properly or even lose a fight. Sometimes, information is even more important than your life." Ibiki explained and all the genin were listening intently.

Ibiki removed hitai-ate attached to his black bandana, revealing the most revolting-looking scalp that the genin had ever seen. Almost fully healed wounds marred the darkened skin, ugly visible scars covered the front part of his head and what seemed to be burns were noticeable from afar. Many gaped at the horrible sight.

"When you are in the situation of being discovered by enemies or any third parties, all the information that you have obtained may not be feasible and accurate. So, I wish all of you to know clearly that if you had gotten the wrong information, you may bring disaster upon your teammates or even your own village! That was the whole aim of the nine questions set for all of you…"

"But I still don't get the tenth question," Temari grumbled, thinking about the sudden fear of not being able to complete their true mission of entering the chuunin exams, which had actually terrified her when she thought of facing her father's wrath. _No way. I will finish this quickly and return home. _

"Actually, the tenth question was the whole point of the exam." Ibiki answered, as if it was the most obvious thing on Earth.

"What do you mean?" one of the older Konoha genin asked, confused.

"Having two painful choices gets you trapped in a dilemma. Imagine being trapped in this kind of situation when you have been promoted to become chuunin! Being unable to make quick decisions, you are not worthy of being called chuunin!"

Nearly inaudible whispers were drifting among the seventy-eight genin left and many were nodding their heads in agreement to the older man's words of wisdom.

Ibiki grinned again, glad to know that there were actually sensible genin in the room. "So, I wish all of you luck in the second exam!"

Immediately after his words, a whirlwind appeared right at the front of the room as if on cue. It revealed a gorgeous brunette and a huge banner stating 'Your second examiner, Mitarashi Anko' as the winds calmed and the leaves drifted down onto the floor leisurely.

"Now is not the time to be relaxing! I'm your second examiner, Mitarashi Anko and now let's get started with the second exam! Come, let's go!" she barked, frightening the hell out of some of the genin.

_Good timing_, Ibiki remarked inwardly.

* * *

"This is where the second exam will take place, the Forest Of Death…" Mitarashi Anko smiled at her examinees and could barely contain her excitement. "You will soon know why it has the name, Forest Of Death."

"_You will soon know why it has the name, Forest Of Death_," Naruto mimicked, his eyes twinkling mischievously as he stared directly into their second examiner's eyes. "It's just a name."

A flicker of recognition appeared in the brunette's eyes, before disappearing completely. The end of her lips curled into a frighteningly charming smile. "Well, if it isn't the troublemaker. I swear that the bloodstain is still there. Wanna see it?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed a little at the mention of his previous _accident _when he had first met Anko in her house when he had received an order to carry out a mission with a lady who had just joined his squad. The reckless woman had then mistaken him as a pervert and slapped him across the face so hard that she broke his nose and the blood had spilled all over Anko's sofa.

His teammates looked at him, puzzled, as if they were already not baffled about Naruto's identity. And the next moment, Anko was standing beside Naruto, with a kunai to his throat. The sharp steel was pressed to his neck and a thin line of blood was forming.

Naruto remained emotionless while Sakura's eyes widened in disbelief that the examiner would do such a thing. He was already used to Anko's strange way of greeting her squad leader.

Anko leaned towards Naruto, so the conversation was for their ears only. "How's being demoted?"

"I'm coping well, I guess. But I fear that they may have found out already. Especially my smart, pink-haired teammate over there."

Anko risked a glance at the direction Naruto had indicated to spot Sakura looking at her with a considerable amount of fear. She leaned forward a little closer and whispered, "Don't push yourself too hard, kid. Man, I wonder why that old man wants you to do this again… Ah, heck. I guess he has his reasons… Don't blame him, alright? I'll visit you later." Anko gave a little sigh as Naruto looked away uncomfortably, muttering incoherently about crazy, overly protective sister.

Anko gave him a little grin, resisting the urge to ruffle Naruto's blond hair. It would cause many people to be suspicious of her affection towards the Kyuubi vessel. Her eyes darkened as she thought of how much the boy had went through merely of the fact that he had contained the almighty fox demon.

_It wasn't even his fault_, Anko thought sadly.

Straightening herself and withdrawing her kunai from Naruto's neck, she said flippantly, hiding her concern, "Don't die so soon, kid."


	8. Heaven And Earth

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is beta-ed by Erugenel on 4th December 2007.

**Carnage**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Eight: Heaven And Earth **

Naruto glanced down at their 'Heaven' scroll and turned it around, checking it a few times inside the tent before walking out to rejoin his teammates. The genin teams had been given papers to sign that if they were to die, it would be none of the examiners' faults. Well, that was rather _assuring _to many of the frightened shit-less genin, who were already trying not to faint on the spot. The blonde could tell that his teammates were not scared, but rather excited at the turn of events.

Naruto gave them a curt nod to assure them that he had gotten their scroll and secured it before the second examiner, Mitarashi Anko hollered at the genin teams which had just received their scrolls, "Okay, brats, your second examination has begun. You can enter the Forest Of Death now if you wish…"

As if on cue, many various gates at different places opened, signaling the start of the examination. Without being told twice, many genin teams rushed into the Forest Of Death to meet their own opponents. The whole point of the second examination was to get the other scroll other than the one a team possesses; if a team possessed the 'Earth' scroll, they would have to obtain a 'Heaven' scroll by any means possible in order to pass the test. From what the sadistic examiner, Anko, had said, they would not be doing the exam behind the comfort of a desk. Deaths and injuries were inevitable; who knew what lurked in that forest full of mysteries? Even the name of the forest stirred fear among the higher-ranked ninja of konoha, much less the genin teams.

Teams were bound to be at each other's necks as long as the examination lasted; in short, survival of the fittest. However, a certain demoted ANBU squad leader would not let his teammates down as long as he lived. As their jounin sensei had said, _'If a ninja doesn't follow the rules, he is trash. However, if one abandons their teammates, he is worse than trash.' _

Naruto would finish this exam as quickly as possible and protect his teammates from any danger that might await them, waiting to strike. His ANBU squad had been given the motto of _'Finishing all missions and all assassinations without hesitation no matter what it takes, without sacrificing one's life or the lives of their teammates.' _Usually their ANBU squad would carry out missions either solo or in a four-men team, so in Naruto's case, his team in the ANBU had never failed any missions before. Naruto grimaced inwardly, thinking if Sasuke's arrogant recklessness would get him killed in action.

The blonde could never be sure, but he could only try his best.

* * *

Upon entering the forest, Sakura had noticed the blonde on her left deep in his musings, his eyes never leaving the ground they were treading on. They were moving on a moderate speed, considering that they would have to conserve their strengths to prepare for any sudden assaults from the other genin teams. Feeling slightly put out that their blonde teammate was still hiding something from them and refused to share it, Sakura waved her hand in front of Naruto vigorously in hopes of snapping him out of his daze.

Sasuke, who was traveling on Sakura's right, raised an eyebrow inquisitively, as if trying to ask _'what are you trying to do? He is forever like this.' _

Sakura proceeded to look murderous and started flapping her arms in agitation. _'But he's going to be the death of me!' _Sakura mouthed at the raven-haired boy, glaring daggers at him. Sasuke, in turn, had the grace to look mock offended.

'_What about me? Don't you care about me too?' _Sasuke mouthed back, then Sakura, despite the awkward circumstances, smiled. They definitely had built up a sort of bond between the three of them, however, with the distance that the blonde had put himself in between his two other teammates, Sakura and Sasuke knew that they would never get to him.

The distance was so vast even though Naruto was just beside Sakura. It was like there was a mile-wide brick wall in between the three of them. No voices could get through and thoughts vice versa.

They could never understand their blond teammate.

They just knew it.

"Is something wrong, Sakura?" Naruto inquired, speaking up for the first time ever since they set foot in the sacred ground of the forest. Well, not so sacred anymore if there were three arrogant-looking brats blocking their path, their eyes begging for a fight, begging for blood to be spilled. The foreheads of the three foreign genin sported the Hidden Rain forehead protectors.

The tallest among the three seemed to be the leader, her green silky hair spilling down her shoulder blades. Her smugness had not gone unnoticed by the three Konoha genin. The threesome halted in their running, allowing their bodies to fall from the branches of the trees and land gracefully with somersaults. The Rain ninjas followed suit, landing onto the ground where both teams looked at each other equally. Then the Rain team's leader decided to speak.

"Well, what scroll you have there, _kids_?" the green-haired ninja asked, her emerald eyes flashing with bloodlust and her very being was emitting small amounts of killer-intent. It was enough to scare Sakura and Sasuke just a little but Naruto was unfazed by it. However, the other two Rain shinobi seemed to be rather hesitant on attacking the Hidden Leaf team as they were fidgeting nervously and one with observant skills would have claimed that the two were just tagging around behind their leader like lapdogs.

Sasuke was angered by the fact that the woman was not taking the three of them seriously, labeling them as _'kids' _upon meeting them. He took a step forwards but was blocked off by Naruto. The blonde shook his head a little, telling him that they should monitor their opponents first, letting them take on the offensive before coming up with a strategy to throw them off completely. Although the Uchiha was infuriated and slightly put off, he could do nothing but nodded in return to his 'leader'. For the time being, that is. The avenger would never acknowledge the blonde as their leader, but for now he had to make do with it.

"How about you tell us what scroll you have first?" Sakura asked, glaring at the leader. She knew that the Rain ninja would not consider letting them go even if they had the same scrolls because of those stupid, expressive eyes that were just calling for blood. The pink-haired girl seethed inwardly when the Rain ninja did not reply and beckoned her hand forward, gesturing for her teammates to fight them.

The one on the left had a mask over his face and gloves on both hands. Sakura narrowed her eyes, contemplating the fact that if a ninja's hands were to be covered, the ninja would have disadvantages in molding their chakra and forming handseals. It was rather perturbing that the man would wear gloves to give himself a disadvantage and did not seem rather worried about it at all, but seemed more anxious of facing his leader's wrath as the leader glared at him and he walked towards them.

The other had twin blades attached to his back and with almost inhumane speed, he jumped in front of Sakura, startling her as she flipped her body elegantly and landed a few feet away from the attacker. _'Play defensive first, Sakura. Observe what your opponent is going to do and never leave an opening like what Naruto had said.' _

'_Sakura!' _Sasuke registered in his mind as his teammate was paired off with an opponent and he was left to face the masked Rain ninja with the gloves. _'Pfft. A weakling who gives himself disadvantages. However, like what Naruto had said earlier on before the exam, we should not underestimate our opponents. Right… But I should still be careful. I haven't faced such opponents before.' _He remembered Naruto's words when they were at the gate; the blonde had advised caution against unknown enemies, and always let their opponent make the first move. Better safe than sorry.

Sasuke then dropped into a rather lazy-looking battle stance to trick his opponent but it seemed that the Rain ninja did not seem at all fooled. The masked shinobi formed a series of handseals with his gloved hands and then shouted, "Suiton: Mizuame Nabara! (Water Release: Syrup Capture Field!)" The Rain ninja then proceeded to spit out a stream of extremely sticky syrup that enveloped the entire ground that both Sasuke and the user were fighting on, holding Sasuke in place.

'_What the hell?'_ Sasuke thought, as he tried to move, but to no avail. The gooey substance was holding him down and he was by all means, stuck. _'So now what?' _Despite the 'sticky situation', the Rain ninja did a back flip on his gloved hands, giving Sasuke an all-rounded kick to his stomach. Being stuck in the nasty technique and caught by surprise, the raven-haired boy was smashed against a tree upon the impact as he coughed slightly, and then… disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The masked ninja widened his eyes to the size of saucers as the smoke cleared to reveal a slightly battered log.

'_He used the Kawarimi before I did the technique!' _The masked Rain ninja thought, blinded by rage. _'How could he be that fast? I didn't even sense him!' _Then, abruptly, as if on instinct, the Rain ninja spun around—to come face to face with the Uchiha's slender leg. Ahem. I mean, leg. The Rain ninja was propelled backwards and landed not so gracefully a distance away from Sasuke. The Uchiha then narrowed his eyes, finally understanding why his opponent had been wearing the gloves—to prevent himself being caught in his own technique.

Sasuke proceeded to end the whole battle with a "Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!)"

A large ball of flames was exhaled from the user's mouth, and it hit the Rain ninja full on, so fast that Sasuke's opponent had no chance of creating a 'Kawarimi' (Body Replacement) to escape. Thinking that the coast was clear and double checking that his opponent was charred and had passed out cold, Sasuke hopped away to help Sakura in her battle since she was considered to be the weakest among all three of them. Naruto, on the other hand, seemed to be doing all right without the Uchiha's help.

* * *

"Kage Bunshin No Jutsu. (Shadow Clone Technique)" Naruto stated clearly as his newly formed clones dashed off, using a series of kicks and punches to test Naruto's opponent, the Rain ninjas' leader.

The blonde was not astonished, however, when the green-haired girl formed a few handseals and yelled, "Mizu Bunshin No Jutsu! (Water Clone Technique)" A Rain-nin who used that technique would most probably be more comfortable with water techniques. The demon vessel needed to wrap the battle up quickly even before the leader of the Rain ninjas would have any chance to use other water techniques, so that he could help his other teammates.

One quick check with a glance at his teammates showed that Sasuke did pretty well with his opponent, finishing off with just one fire technique. However, Sakura did not seem to fare very well as her stamina was still quite low and her opponent was too fast for her. From what Naruto could see, the pink-haired girl was trying to dodge the enemy's moves but she, unlike Sasuke, did not own the _Sharingan _and evading the incoming attacks were gradually tiring the girl.

However, Naruto knew that Sakura would still be able to hold her opponent off until Sasuke finished his, so the blonde turned back to his opponent and concentrated on her first.

Naruto's shadow clones were facing off the girl's water clones and it all came down to the users. Some of Naruto's clones were beaten up badly by the water clones and disappeared in puffs of smoke while some of the Rain-nin's clones also dispersed into puddles of water. Emerald eyes flashing, the girl smirked as Naruto ran towards her and said, "Dokugiri! (Poison Mist)" The blonde breathed out grayish toxic gas from his mouth before his mind registered his opponent's disappearance. _'She's fast. But not fast enough.'_

"Well, I guess I should give you my name so that you will know your killer. Then you can beg for mercy properly," A voice from above Naruto taunted, her tone speaking volumes of absolute confidence. The Rain-nin was very convinced that she could get the other team's 'Heaven' scroll even though her teammate who specialized in sticking his enemies down had passed out. She knew that she could not rely on her teammates because they were just weaklings who trailed her to be protected. The leader wanted to scoff at her teammates because they were _boys _and they still wanted protection from a _girl_? It was clearly laughable.

The demoted genin looked up, to see the green-haired girl in her yukata, about to leap on him.

She did.

The Rain ninja leader held Naruto by the shoulder and did a graceful back flip, while saying, "My name is Kagami Suirou. Well, goodbye handsome." She brought her leg up to Naruto's other shoulder blade and was about to force chakra to her leg and giving the blonde a nice kick when he held her by her leg before coldly stating, "Bunshin Daibakuha. (Clone Great Explosion)"

The real Naruto had been observing the entire battle of his chakra-reinforced shadow clone on a tree branch as he quickly did a technique to make his clone blow up. Hopping down from the tree and making a nice landing, he walked over to check on his opponent's status. Her beautiful face was burnt beyond recognition and her other body parts were blown up into bits and pieces. He picked up the 'Earth' scroll that had rolled towards a tree because of the impact of the explosion but luckily it was not harmed, as the Rain-nin was clever enough to place a water barrier over it.

The blonde had not felt remorse in killing the girl in the worst way possible. It was like another efficient assassination he had always done throughout all these years and he needed to kill the leader so that they would meet fewer enemies later on in the exam. It was cruel to the extreme, but to Naruto, it was inevitable. To kill her was to ensure that she would not threaten anyone any longer.

However it was likely that the girl would have people grieving for her, like her family and friends. Naruto wondered how it would feel. Would anyone grieve, if he too were to die? He forcefully shrugged his thoughts away and decided that he had gotten more emotional ever since his demotion because he had even considered about not killing the green-haired girl. He thought back to the incident when he had killed Haku and confirmed his suspicion: he was getting soft.

He needed to have a heart of stone to survive in the world. It was all that he had.

Naruto glanced at her and gave a small, sad smile. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, Kagami-san. Nice to meet you." The blonde stared at her to make sure that she was not a clone before moving in Sakura's direction.

* * *

A deafening explosion was heard a distance away from Sakura and Sasuke as they were dealing the Rain ninja who wielded the twin blades. He looked relatively harmless but he was slashing with accurate moves and inhumane speed with his swords.

A few seconds later after they had heard the explosion, the Rain ninja was scared shit-less while Sakura and Sasuke merely looked at each other and shrugged, as they had _heard _a certain blonde performing that technique before. With a cloud of smoke, Naruto had appeared behind the Rain ninja, who had been fighting Sakura and Sasuke all along with the two approaching with taijutsu and mainly on the defensive, and whispered, "Kanashibari No Jutsu. (Temporary Paralysis Technique—this is considered a signature technique of all ANBU members)"

The Rain ninja with the twin blades crumpled onto the ground, unable to comprehend what was going on as he stared up blankly at Sakura and Sasuke and he looked on with fear as the pink-haired girl advanced on him.

Shaking his head in amusement, Naruto called out, "Let's go, Sakura. I have gotten the Rain ninjas' 'Earth' scroll. We can go and report now."

"Yeah, okay, Naruto," Sakura responded, standing up to reveal a badly beaten up Rain ninja who looked almost unrecognizable. The only things that proved his identity were the twin blades he carried along with him since his appearance. Sasuke and Naruto felt almost sorry for the dude beaten up by Sakura.

It was terrifying to face the girl's wrath, especially when her blows packed a punch. Naruto was sure that Sakura would have excelled in her taijutsu if only her stamina matched his. However, it was rather a pity since the pink-haired girl's stamina was slightly below average because of her lack of training both within and without the academy. Before they had graduated, Sakura had let love blind her; following her infatuations around like a lovesick puppy.

"Sakura, I think you should focus on your stamina. You have the potential to excel taijutsu if you increase your stamina. If you keep it up, you can outmatch your opponents with your taijutsu soon enough," Naruto suggested as the three of them moved off at a faster pace this time, in hopes of reaching their destination before sunset.

Sakura, who had been looking down and reminiscing the previous battle, looked up, obviously delighted at the suggestion. "You think so, Naruto?"

She could prove to her teammates that she was not a weakling and needed help from her teammates. Sakura could follow Naruto's advice and start working on her stamina so that she could handle her opponents herself without anybody helping her.

Her question was answered by Naruto's assuring, small smile. It was small, but it was enough for Sakura.

"Thank you, Naruto."

Sasuke, however, was jealous that Naruto was giving more attention to his other teammate. Wait… Jealous? When would he, Uchiha Sasuke, be jealous of such trivial things? Although Sasuke would not blatantly admit it, he was actually yearning for Naruto's attention. The blonde's power seemed so great that he could almost be considered as knowledgeable when it came to techniques and analyzing situations. His advice would be of great help to Sasuke but until now, Naruto had not offered him anything except some foreign concepts such as teamwork, which he had considered useless before.

The avenger also knew that he would rather kill himself than ask Naruto for advice because he could never show him weakness. It would just give the blond an opportunity to scoff at him. Sasuke wondered if his pink-haired teammate would too, if he asked Naruto for advice.

Noticing Sasuke's dilemma, Naruto wanted to smile at Sasuke's stubbornness. Having spent months with Team Seven, Naruto could understand that Sasuke would never admit that he needed other's help ever since the Uchiha's massacre. "Uchiha-san—"

"Sasuke is fine. No need to call me Uchiha-san," Sasuke replied brusquely, as if he was irritated by that formal usage of his name. He felt like he was being a dummy for being irritated but he could just _relate _to being called Itachi because all his brother's friends in ANBU had called him that too. It was too formal for Sasuke. It had been Uchiha-san this and Uchiha-san that in Itachi's case and then Naruto was calling him that. It just felt… strange and make distant.

"Sasuke," Naruto confirmed and Sasuke in turn, nodding. "You should work on chakra control." Sasuke widened his eyes.

Naruto was giving him suggestions? Could Naruto read minds or something?

"When perfecting your fire techniques you often used too much chakra, wasting much of it and thus succumbing to chakra exhaustion. After the second exam, we can do chakra exercises, maybe Kakashi-sensei will see to that too."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he took in Naruto's words. "Chakra… Exercise? Like what Sakura and I did in Wave Country? That tree-climbing exercise?"

"Yeah," Naruto replied, his eyes kept looking in front of him, occasionally looking back to check on his clones covering their tracks with his teammates unnoticing. "Sakura can work on that too. I can go over the details later but now we should rest for a while. I can hear a stream nearing."

* * *

Sakura filled their bottles with water and laid them down, proceeding to splash her face to clear the dirt. She had not gotten over Kabuto's words during the first examination, and she knew that she would beat the hell out of Naruto just to get the information of his past. Then, pausing in her thoughts, the pink-haired girl sighed.

Her teammate was secretive,sure, but he was anything but dangerous. He seemed so kind, shy, cool and distanced but he would also help his teammates in need. Sakura knew that she could rely on Naruto but it was high time for her to become independent.

Then, she heard a rustle within the bushes.

Sakura narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she took out a kunai from her weapons pouch.

"Who's there?"

Her chest tightened as she felt fear overwhelming her body. _'Naruto or Sasuke aren't here to save me this time! I will die if I meet a powerful opponent!' _Sakura thought frantically as she tried to calculate the probability of escaping her perilous situation alive.

"**Shannaro! You will kick all of your enemies to hell yourself! You need not rely on other people!" **inner Sakura shouted in frustration.

She was right. Sakura need not rely on other people. Thinking back on what Naruto had suggested to her before, Sakura smiled grimly. _'I can do this. I will train and become stronger. I will not be overshadowed by the people around me. I will become the strongest kunoichi in Konoha!'_

Another rustle.

Sakura neared the source of noise discreetly and she gripped her kunai tighter. She started a mantra in her head, 'You can do this Sakura, believe in yourself. Believe in yourself when nobody is here to help you.'

Her heart thrashed savagely against her ribcage and Sakura struggled to keep her breathing even and quiet.

"Mmmf, mmmff!" a muffled voice called out, startling Sakura out of her thoughts. The voice seemed so familiar… Like she had heard it before…


	9. Dangerous Encounters

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is is beta-ed by Erugenel on 4th December 2007.

**Carnage**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Nine: Dangerous Encounters **

"Sakura!" a blond head popped out from the bushes to reveal Ino, Sakura's best friend and rival. Shikamaru, Ino's teammate, stood up and put a hand behind his head sheepishly, "How troublesome… I told you not to call her already… She is our enemy in this exam…" Sakura could tell from the way Shikamaru was talking that he had been pressing his hand over Ino's mouth to prevent her from calling Sakura.

"But!" Ino protested, and Choji's head popped out from the bushes too as he held a packet of 'original flavored' potato chips and crunching on the chips with bits of them scattered all around him. Sakura then relaxed a little, lowering her kunai. Those three would never be a threat, considering that Shikamaru would always pull his other two teammates away, saying battles were too troublesome and Ino, knowing her, would never want to engage in a battle that she knew that she would never win.

Even though Sakura was outnumbered, she was pretty sure that her best friend would not attack her. Then she came up with an idea.

"Ne, Ino-pig, what scroll do you have now?"

"Don't call me Ino-pig, big forehead!" Ino seethed, before calming down to reply listlessly, "Heaven. It's useless actually. I don't think we can pass this exam after all. So far, we only met you guys."

Sakura smirked, thinking that her plan would worth a try after all. "Well, would you guys like to join forces with my team? We've gotten the required two scrolls already and we can help you to get the 'Earth' scroll too. We can pass together."

"How do we know that you're (munch) not (gulp) lying?" Choji asked before sending saliva and bits of chips everywhere.

"Sakura is right. We have gotten two scrolls already and we can help you in finishing the second examination too," Naruto said, entering the clearing with Sasuke.

"We thought you were under attack since you took so long," Sasuke said as he saw Sakura's curious glances. Sakura then looked away, blushing and embarrassed. "Right." Then averting her attention back to her best friend, Sakura asked again, "So, what's your answer?"

Ino caught the strange glance that Naruto had given her and looked away abruptly. The incident that happened between her and Naruto was still fresh in her mind. Since that incident, she had given the cold shoulder to her father, even considering leaving. However, she knew she was just being immature and decided to ask her father his reason for hating Naruto. What she received was a tight slap.

For now, she could only prove that Naruto was worthy of recognition and friendship, not hateful stares and passing remarks. Surely her father could see that he posed no threat? Her mother never said anything, but Ino could guess that beneath her tight-lipped demeanor, she knew more than she was ever going to let on.

Maybe she could get answers from Naruto too. Especially after what the gray-haired ninja had said before. Naruto could have them all fooled about his past too. Kabuto's nin-info cards had revealed Naruto capable of completing _S-ranked missions_, for god's sake! Could it be a glitch in Kabuto's calculations? Surely he was just joking…

But Ino had seen the fear in Naruto's eyes when he stopped Kabuto from revealing anymore than he had.

"All right, we will join you… How troublesome. With you guys maybe it will be less troublesome for us to get the other scroll…" Shikamaru said, before proceeding to fill his bottle with water too.

"Shikamaru?" Ino inquired, finally understanding that Shikamaru knew that she would want to snoop, therefore accepting the temporary alliance in the second examination. _'Thank you.' _

* * *

The others knew that Ino had something of importance to ask Naruto and they decided to leave the two behind for a while, while they set off to scout for a bit and set traps before them. Naruto had covered their tracks previously well enough to throw off any pursuers for at least a few hours so they had time to rest before getting up and setting off once more to get the other 'Earth' scroll for Ino's team.

Ino walked over to a flat stone slab and sat down beside the stream. Naruto, however, stood against a tree, having his clones constantly on the lookout for any other opponents so that they could easily get the other scroll they required.

"Are you hiding something from us, Naruto-san?" Ino asked, her eyes flashing with curiosity so intense that Naruto had to fight to look away. Ino had decided not to use the suffix 'kun' because at that moment they were both equal comrades; to let emotions interfere with the mission would threaten its progress. She was already taking a risk by asking Naruto about his past. Addressing Naruto with the suffix 'kun' would remind her of her father somehow. Moreover, this was the chuunin exam and it was her dream to be a chuunin. It was the dream of every single kunoichi to pass the chuunin exam.

Noticing Ino's solemn tone, Naruto looked straight in her eyes. "What makes you think so, Ino-san? Is it about what Kabuto-san said?" Naruto asked, narrowing his eyes and tensing his right arm, allowing a kunai to slide down onto his palm undetected by Ino. If anyone discovered his identity, it spelled trouble. Those people who knew would be considered as a liability in Naruto's eyes. He did not need unwanted relations or emotions, anyway. It would just weigh him down on his missions.

However, he knew teammates and comrades were different because they could act accordingly and hold their own. They might even watch his back too; even if it was Naruto doing that for most of the time.

And Ino was viewing Naruto as a comrade, as a teammate as of their alliance then. He should do the same and not think of Ino as something completely different.

"Even if what he said was true, would it change your opinion of me?" Naruto asked, thinking back about the incident when Ino had run out searching for him in the rain, telling him that she liked him. Despite his psychology training mandatory for all ANBU trainees, he could never fully grasp the depth of the human psyche.

Ino looked away, suddenly fascinated by the pristine waters of the stream. "I hope not," Ino smiled coyly, despite her face being turned away from Naruto, hidden from his view. "But one thing I want you to know is that when you are ready, you can tell us everything. Please treat us as your friends." Ino then turned to look at him, looking slightly doubtful.

"I'm your friend, right?"

'_Friend…?' _Naruto mused. Then everything fell in place. "Yes, Ino, you are my friend, I guess."

"Well, that's a relief!" Ino laughed.

"Thank you."

* * *

As both Ino and Naruto made their way back to their teams, Shikamaru gave Ino an inquisitive look and was going to ask about Naruto when Ino sent him a death glare that immediately meant 'shut up!' The lazy ninja then shrugged nonchalantly as if whatever he was going to ask did not matter at all and then muttered an almost inaudible, "How troublesome…"

The two teams were well rested and it had only been four hours into the exam. They decided to move on first before any of the traps were activated so that they would not give away their hideouts and statagems.

A golden colored butterfly caught Sakura, Choji and Shikamaru's attention as the three started wondering if a butterfly could be born that color. Shikamaru then realized he was being trapped in a genjutsu (illusion) and hastily murmured a 'kai!' but unluckily for Sakura and Choji, they were unable to notice the illusion, hence falling prey to it, thus being rendered unconcious.

"Sakura, Choji!" Ino yelled, running to her best friend and teammate, and attempted to shake them up. "What's wrong with her?"

"A genjutsu," Shikamaru stated, deep in thoughts. "Who is it?"

"Are you guys all right?" a voice asked from above them. Naruto could recognize that strange chakra signature anywhere. Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru and the blonde looked up to find Kabuto Yakushi addressing the two teams. "Somebody has been casting these illusions as traps. Have you guys fallen for it?" The gray-haired Konoha ninja jumped down from the sturdy branch and landed gracefully on both of his legs and his right hand acting as support. He adjusted his glasses and peered at the two teams through them. _'Only two of them fell for it… Damn, I must have been too slow.'_

"You were the one who cast the illusion, Kabuto-san," Naruto stated as if it was the most obvious thing on Earth. The others stared at him like he had grown another head or something. "It's self-explanatory." _'I felt his chakra signature not long ago but I didn't think of him as a threat. And there's another that felt like the Grass ninja who had been staring at me since the start of the second exam… Where is she?' _Naruto then glanced at their surroundings, with the trees blocking his view.

"Where's your accomplice?" Naruto asked with deadly calm. Kabuto's eyes registered shock as Naruto said again, this time with tiny amounts of killer-intent leaking out, "The Grass ninja, Kabuto-san. Where is she?"

"Kukuku, if it isn't Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun…" a voice trilled and the said Grass ninja stepped out from behind a tree, greeting only the two boys.

"Who the hell are you!" Sasuke snarled, clearly shaken that an unknown ninja from another hidden village would have known his name. Even Naruto seemed rather wary of her, given by the fact that he was narrowing his eyes and his arm tensed to let a kunai fall from his kunai holster. Sasuke spun around to find that Kabuto had already disappeared. _'What!'_ In fact, when Sasuke turned his attention back to the disturbing Grass-nin, he found Kabuto standing next to her.

"You're on her side?" Sasuke asked, narrowing his eyes. It would make sense how the Grass bitch knew their names already. The gray-haired traitor with his nin-info cards would have informed her anyway.

"I have never taken sides, Sasuke-kun. I am loyal only to one," the Yakushi smirked at the avenger's idiocy and the other's ignorance. He had been quite worried by the fact that Naruto would reveal his true identity, but to his chagrin, the blonde had been pretty oblivious to all the deeds Kabuto had done being a Konoha ninja. Frankly, he had expected more of a challenge.

Kabuto had been sick and tired of the safe, serene and peaceful hidden village because he knew that under all that bullshit, Konoha was just another village with villagers blinded by ignorance and blissfulness. They knew nothing about pain, about torture.

They were brought up to just enjoy life, but with the exception of Naruto-kun, of course.

"If you want to get our scrolls, you have to fight us to get it… Even if this is all too troublesome…" Shikamaru sighed before preparing himself for the unavoidable. If they were lucky, their opponents would most probably own the 'Heaven' scroll.

"Well then, I will have to handle you kids," Kabuto said, before jumping and landing in front of Shikamaru. Ino turned to check the well being of her fallen comrades and was sure that Kabuto would pay for being a traitor. Hell, whatever he had said before could have been a bluff after all, just to create confusion between Naruto and the others so that the traitor could find an opening to strike.

'_Shit… Ino's technique can't be used in such battles… We have to go on defensive… See what he has up on his sleeves first…'_ Shikamaru started formatting a strategy of his own against the battle with Kabuto as Ino hovered defensively over Sakura and Choji, and neither Kabuto nor the two moved.

* * *

"Well, if you want to find out what scroll I have…" the Grass-nin took out her 'Earth' scroll before sticking her very, very, _very_ long tongue out and proceeded to lick the scroll. Sasuke looked in disgust while Naruto just stood there and examined his opponent. _'She is suppressing her chakra so that we can't really feel it and will underestimate her for what she truly is…' _

"If you want my scroll," the Grass-nin started, before putting the scroll into her mouth and swallowed it whole. She licked her lips and grinned sadistically. "You will have to come and get it. For me, _I will use all kinds of methods to get your scrolls_…" _'Shikumi No Jutsu… (Death Foreseeing Technique)' _

Upon the Grass-nin's words, Sasuke and Naruto were glued to the spot and they found themselves unable to move. Kunai and shuriken flew from all directions and all struck both boys. The two could feel the fear, the pain, and the killer-intent mounting up with enormous speed. Two kunai went off for the finishing strike and lodged just in between the boys' eyes and they could feel the death god walking towards them.

Then, it was over.

Sasuke and Naruto panted in fear, with Naruto regaining his composure a split second later. _'She had used the Shikumi No Jutsu on us… I have been careless…' _

'_What the hell was that? I could feel that it was just normal killer-intent… But what did she do that I can see my own death? Is that an illusion?' _Sasuke mused, his thoughts racing at a thousand miles an hour. _'What the hell is she?'_

"Sasuke," Naruto said, his voice devoid of fear, "Are you all right?" The blonde turned around to see Sasuke trembling, still trying to recover from the fear and the induced paralysis.

'_How can Naruto be so damn calm about this! We must get away now! Get away before… Before that woman kills us!' _Sasuke screamed in his mind, being rather annoyed that his teammate could overcome the fear and all that images of death moments ago so quickly. Being deep in thoughts, he was unaware of two kunai whistling in the air and their potential target was Sasuke.

"Sasuke!" Naruto half yelled, moving towards Sasuke with such speed that the others could only see a blurred figure. Sasuke turned his head to fully analyze his situation, before activating the _Sharingan _and hopped away from the two incoming weapons. His eyes were crimson red with the three black irises spinning in it. A cloud of dust was created at the speed Sasuke had traveled with to avoid the kunai. Instead, the two kunai were embedded deep into the bark of a tree.

"Are you okay?" the demon container asked but was surprised when the avenger pulled out a kunai from his weapon pouch, trembling, and stabbed it into his thigh. Blood began to flow from the injury and the raven-haired boy took a long, shaky breath before trying to regain his composure and tried not to lose his head. He would need to work with Naruto if they wanted to win their opponent in front of them. The Grass-nin's very being was vibrating with power and unsaid darkness and Sasuke did not need to think to know that he may not win this match without the help of Naruto.

'_Hmmm, interesting, Sasuke-kun. Using pain to penetrate your fear…' _The Grass-nin thought, licking her lips. _'Naruto-kun doesn't even seem to be affected at all… Ah… both will make excellent prey…'_

* * *

"Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu No Jutsu! (Earth Release: Inner Decapitation Technique!)" Kabuto shouted, emerging from the underground as he caught the lazy genin and pulled him under so that his whole body with the exception of the head was stuck in the ground. The ninja with the glasses smirked as he thought Shikamaru being too easy for him and was about to move on and deal with the girl when he noticed a 'poof' sound. Kabuto turned to see the 'Shikamaru' who he had forced underground was only a log.

'_Kawarimi? Then where is the real one?' _Kabuto thought, turning again before finding himself unable to move. _'What the…'_ Kabuto looked down to see a long shadow on the ground stretching all the way from Shikamaru until it attached to his own feet.

"Gotcha," Shikamaru stated, his hands maintaining the handseal needed for the 'Kagemane No Jutsu (Shadow Bind Technique)'. He then straightened himself and walked towards the gray-haired ninja with his opponent doing the same thing. "How troublesome…"

Kabuto struggled against the technique but to no avail as the it was the signature move of the Nara family and the technique allowed the user to control their own shadow and merge it with the opponent's shadow, combining them. That would link the movements of the user with the target and the target would be subsequently forced to make any movement the user makes, like being a copycat.

It was an extremely resourceful technique because it also enabled the user to contract, expand and change the shape of the shadow, being able to take control of several enemies as well. While using the shadows of other objects around the user, the user can also extend the shadow beyond its normal range. However, the technique may be quite chakra consuming as it would be a hassle to maintain the technique. The target might cancel the technique, but a considerable amount of effort would be needed.

Kabuto decided to weigh his possibilities of canceling the technique but he had no time to think as the lazy genin muttered, "Kage Kubi Shibari No Jutsu (Shadow Neck Bind Technique)." Two black hand-shaped shadows snaked up Kabuto's legs and up to his throat, strangling him.

Kabuto struggled as his breaths became more erratic and then the technique finally came loose. The gray-haired ninja fell to the ground gasping for breath as the Nara kid panted slightly too for using too much chakra on maintaining the technique.

As Kabuto was about to get up, a blond girl from his left hand side delivered a high jump kick to his face and his body whirled multiple times in the air before colliding into a tree, painfully. Shit, he had not noticed the girl at all. He had obviously underestimated his opponents just because they were genin and he was sure that he would not make the mistake twice.

They will learn soon enough.

* * *

He stared at his opponent, scrutinizing her every move with the _Sharingan_. Although the Grass-nin did not move on the offensive yet, the technique she used to freeze both boys down was terrifying Sasuke. He had to make sure that the girl did not attempt it again or this time, Sasuke could not take the stress. It was horrifying to witness your death like that, especially when you were rooted to the ground, unable to defend yourself. It would be the worst situation a shinobi could be in.

The blood dripped from his leg as he tried to calm himself down— another worst-case scenario was to be paralyzed by fear. Sasuke then thought of giving the scrolls to the Grass-nin so that she would let the two of them go, but the scrolls were with Naruto and it was unlikely that the blonde would ever agree. However, Sasuke still had to try.

Sasuke jumped away from the danger he was in and Naruto seemed to let out his breath in relief to show that he had been worried. The avenger narrowed his eyes, thinking that having someone, especially _Naruto_, worried about him was humiliating. It made him feel like a weakling, something that needed protecting.

The Grass-nin seemed to be obviously amused by the foolish boy's tactics. The blood limit would require great amounts of chakra to maintain and it would prove to be exhausting to the raven-haired boy. He was risking chakra exhaustion even before he completed the second chuunin exam and it said a lot that Sasuke wanted the opponent in front of him to be eliminated as quickly as possible.

"Naruto, give her the scrolls. We can find other opponents to snatch scrolls from but this woman is too strong. I just know it," Sasuke whispered loud enough for the blonde to catch it and Naruto turned to Sasuke, his eyes filled with bewilderment.

"Give her the scrolls?" Naruto then turned his attention back to the Grass-nin, narrowing his eyes. "Sorry, Sasuke that's a no. Don't worry, I'll get us out of this situation."

Sasuke seethed in frustration as the blonde did not heed his advice. Was he dumb? The enemy they were facing was completely out of their league! It would be impossible for two genin to defeat such powerful ninja, that Sasuke calculated may be above jounin level. He watched in dismay as Naruto ran towards his enemy, flinging two throwing stars at her with dead accuracy that even Sasuke could not attempt.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin No Jutsu, (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)" Naruto muttered as the shuriken he had flung had created multiple copies of the shuriken with the technique to make the attack more powerful. The blonde watched as the Grass-nin smirked and bit her thumb, spreading the blood up her arm before saying evenly, "Kuchiyose No Jutsu. (Summoning Technique)"

A large snake that was almost a ten meters tall tree appeared with the Grass-nin standing on its head. As the incoming weapons were soaring towards the Grass ninja, she looked on indifferently as her summoned snake whipped its enormous tail in the throwing stars' direction and all the shuriken fell to the ground, rendered useless. The shuriken had not dealt any damage to the snake's tail too. It seemed to Naruto that the snake's skin could be as tough as a dinosaur's. But it had occurred to Naruto earlier on that the larger and stronger it looked, the slower it should be.

However, the animal he was facing here was a snake. A snake was known to be one of the speediest creatures that glided the Earth.

Then, as if on cue, the creature glided with such velocity towards Naruto that it could rival a racing car driving at three hundred miles per hour. The genuine Naruto had been suppressing his chakra to the minimum so that his opponent would not realize his existence and stood a distance away to observe the battle. His chakra-reinforced clone was being targeted as Naruto looked on to see what the Grass-nin was planning.

Naruto was shocked when the snake changed its course and slithered towards the _Sharingan_ bearer instead.

Sasuke widened his eyes as he tried to jump out of the way but his body was smothered by the Grass-nin's killer-intent and the avenger could only stare at the snake numbly, his body shaking with fear. _'Move, damn it! Move Sasuke! Naruto can't be fast enough to save you this time! Move!'_ However, as his body would not react to his commands, Sasuke could only close his eyes in defeat and accepted the death awaiting him. He wondered, as the snake sped to him, if his dream could ever be accomplished…


	10. Evil Snakes and Cursed Seals

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is is beta-ed by Erugenel on 4th December 2007.

**Carnage**

**

* * *

Chapter Ten: Evil Snakes and Cursed Seals **

Sasuke widened his eyes as he tried to jump out of the way but his body was smothered by the Grass-nin's killer-intent and the avenger could only stare at the snake numbly, his body shaking with fear. _'Move, damn it! Move Sasuke! Naruto can't be fast enough to save you this time! Move!'_ However, as his body would not react to his commands, Sasuke could only close his eyes in defeat and accepted the death awaiting him. He wondered, as the snake sped to him, if his dream could ever be accomplished…

To kill his brother… It had been his dream…

"_Ah! A snake! Onii-chan! Help!" a young Sasuke screamed, as he huddled against his brother, shaking with fear. The said creature was hissing venomously at the two brothers as if to scoff at their insolence. Itachi had only smiled, ruffling his brother's hair. _

"_Don't be silly. Are you afraid of snakes?" Itachi asked softly and he was rather amused as Sasuke nodded vigorously to show his contempt for the cold-blooded animal. "All right I will get rid of it for you. Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!)"_

_The flames burnt the animal and Sasuke watched on, fascinated, as the animal hissed in pain. His brother had eliminated his fear. _

"_That was so cool, onii-chan! Can you teach me that?" _

"_Maybe next time, Sasuke."_

It was when the next time he had met his brother, Sasuke's fears had vanished and his ambition had been changed to 'killing his brother'. Before that, it was to get his father to acknowledge him… And to Sasuke, as tears appeared at the corner of his eyes and they opened to reveal dark pupils, he only wanted to spend more time with his brother, before his whole clan had been eradicated completely due to his brother.

A tear fell from his eye, finding its way down Sasuke's cheek. He had _loved _his brother so much… It hurt too much when his brother had betrayed the whole clan, _betrayed him_. He trusted him completely and Sasuke could see what a fool he was back then. _He only wanted to spend more time with Itachi, that was all. _

* * *

"Hmmm… These dango are sure the best in Konoha! They go best with red bean soup too…" Anko thought as she sat on a tree branch, swinging her legs leisurely. She licked her lips as she savored the wonderful taste of her dango before throwing the stick against the tree bark, completing the Konoha sign with that final stick. "There. Hmmm, I should go to the tower to report now… Those people who are fast enough should be there in twenty-four hours time… I guess I will meet Naruto there then…"

Anko was still worried for her squad captain. She had not seen that emotionally detached blonde for several months in her squad and had personally went to ask the Hokage for his whereabouts while the Third simply informed Anko that Naruto had been demoted. At first, her reaction was to be furious with the Third and demanded for the blonde's return, but after the Sandaime explained to her about his actions, Anko found herself agreeing with him.

Naruto had always buried himself in work and missions, never finding any time to interact with people his age. Although he would have friends around Anko's age since he mingled with the ANBU squads too much, Anko seriously doubted that he would have a true friend given his 'popularity'.

What was more was that Anko had found out from the demon vessel himself almost a year ago ever since she had entered his squad that Naruto might not have more years to stay alive. She had found out that the demon vessel had been going through painful seizures due to the Kyuubi's chakra and a foreign chakra raging inside Naruto, also causing his cells to age faster than they normally would.

She knew that Naruto would rather kill himself than let his chakra control him to release carnage and chaos into Konoha. Anko knew that Naruto would be that kind of person. But she did not want Naruto to do that. He did not deserve to die. He had handled the villagers' ignorance of the demon and their hatred.

She remembered telling him incidents with Orochimaru and the agony she had to go through with the cursed seal, but Naruto had taken it all too indifferently.

"_At least you know what to feel," Naruto said, his voice void of any emotion. If Anko were to listen more attentively, she could have heard the bitterness in the tone. "You only have one sole person to hate."_

"_What! You don't know anything! So don't come to me with all that bullshit—" Anko raged until she saw the blue eyes looking down at the village with a glare filled with hatred from their position on top of the Hokage's mountain. _

_Then, Anko started to wonder about the blonde's sanity as he answered so calmly that Anko wanted to strangle him, "I wish I don't know anything, Anko. I really do."_

"Anko-sama! Something bad happened!" one of the examiners called out to Anko and pulled her back to Konoha as she stared down at him and asked, "What happened?"

"We just found three corpses!" the chuunin replied frantically and gulped as Anko scrutinized him carefully.

"Corpses?" Anko asked, narrowing her eyes while chewing at dango all the while.

They ran towards the scene of crime to find themselves in front of statues of gods. Glutinous-like blood was sprayed all over the picture of serenity and three corpses were added to the gruesome décor. Two other chuunin were examining the bodies before reporting to Anko, "From their possessions and their identification, they are ninjas from the Hidden Grass Village, ready to enter the chuunin exam this year… However… their faces seem to have corroded…"

Anko stared at the bodies and thought about the chuunin's words. _'The faces were corroded… If I'm not mistaken, it must be his techniques! What is _he _doing in the chuunin exams?'_

"Let me see their pictures!" Anko ordered and a chuunin brought up a photograph of the Hidden Grass ninja and Anko's eyes widened visibly as she stared at the picture. _'That's the Grass-nin who had been staring at Naruto for a long while before the exam started! Shit…'_

"This is bad!" Anko yelled, her heart thumping with fear for her captain. If Orochimaru was to enter the chuunin exam and have such a vested interest in Naruto, his life would be in danger! Anko's mind raced with thoughts of Naruto owning the cursed seal, but that should not be a possibility, right? Her captain would not endanger his life so easily. She knew that he could take care of himself.

"What!" the three chuunin shouted in confusion.

"All of you report to the Hokage about this now! After that, send two teams of ANBU to the Forest Of Death immediately! I will enter the Forest Of Death to capture the killer!"

* * *

"Shunshin No Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique)," the actual Naruto said quickly as he dashed towards Sasuke with the technique in use. The high-speed movement technique allowed a ninja to move short distances at an almost untraceable speed. To the observer, it would appear as if the user had teleported. It could be accomplished by using chakra to temporarily boost the reflexes of the user and the amount of chakra required would depend on the overall distance between the user and the intended destination.

Time seemed to slow down for Naruto as the snake moved towards Sasuke in slow motion and he noticed the tear that had fell from Sasuke's eye. _'Is he crying? Is he crying because he is afraid to die?' _

Naruto moved himself in front of Sasuke and transferred large amounts of chakra to his hands and arms to push the snake back. The force of the creature pushed the blonde back but the chakra on his palms had burnt the snake's skin and the snake hissed in disdain. The blonde grunted as the effort to contain the beast was more difficult than he thought as the snake was twenty times larger than Naruto and its strength far surpassed the blonde's. His eye caught a glimpse of Sasuke and Naruto told himself that his teammate was okay, at least, for now.

'_Naruto… Saved me? But how?' _Sasuke thought as he looked at the blonde struggling to keep the snake at bay. For that moment as the killer-intent that held him down had vanished when the Grass-nin's concentration broke, the avenger took it as his opportunity to work together with Naruto as a team.

"_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" _his brother had said to kill his fear. Sasuke shook that thought away before performing the same technique that his brother had used to kill the snake and aimed it at the creepy ninja. "Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!)"

The fire technique had caught the Grass-nin at unawares and even as she tried to dodge, flames were licking at her face. Sasuke smirked in victory but his face paled in horror as the Grass-nin's face seemed to be peeled off, the skin charred and disposable like the snake the Grass-nin was standing on. It was the forehead protector that caught Sasuke's attention. It was the sign of the Hidden Sound Village.

"What—" Sasuke started but the 'Grass' ninja took no heed and sped her way down to Naruto instead. "Naruto!"

It was too late as Naruto was being caught up with the snake and the 'Grass' ninja did a handseal and her neck elongated, to Sasuke and Naruto's surprise and the creepy-looking ninja bit down onto Naruto's neck, hard. The blonde yelped and Sasuke yelled in shock, "What did you do to Naruto! What the hell are you?-!"

The 'Grass' ninja was too fast. She was too fast for Sasuke even if he had activated his blood limit again. Her elongated neck stretched towards Sasuke and grinned at the avenger viciously. The blonde had fallen onto all fours and he bit on his lower lip to prevent himself from crying out from the excruciating agony.

"It is a gift, Sasuke-kun and I'm going to give it to you too," the 'Grass' ninja said and she bit down onto Sasuke's pale-colored neck, her teeth dripping with blood. As she pulled away, Sasuke's neck revealed a bite mark, which slowly took on a shape of three water-droplets, almost like the _Sharingan_. "As for your question, I am Orochimaru. Both of you will seek for my power and by then, I will be waiting…" Orochimaru then did a few handseals and disappeared into the ground.

From a distance where Kabuto was fighting against Ino and Shikamaru, the gray-haired ninja had noticed Orochimaru's disappearance and decided to call the fight off. He smirked, as he looked at the unconscious Shikamaru and the girl who was panting heavily in exhaustion.

"We'll see you again. It would occur to you that Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun would need help with containing the 'gifts' that my master has given them. Bye," Kabuto said to the surprised Ino and gathered chakra to his feet before taking off, leaving the girl alone with her thoughts. By then, Choji and Sakura were starting to stir and she glanced at them before running to the place where Naruto and Sasuke were clutching their necks in unison, struggling against the pain coursing through their bodies.

* * *

Anko flitted from tree to tree, her mind anxious about meeting her previous sensei and she wondered, just wondered, if she could make it alive at all. It would be possible that this _mission_ would probably be her last considering her sensei's strength in the past and his strength would most probably increase over the years. It would be tougher for Anko to fight her sensei.

But over the years in Naruto's squad, Anko had gotten stronger too.

Her mind was racing through pessimistic thoughts but she was pulled out from them as a distant voice called out her squad captain's name, "Naruto! Are you okay? Naruto!"

Anko looked down from where she had stopped to try and find out the source of the voice and saw a blond girl trying to embrace the Naruto gingerly but the demon vessel was pushing her away.

'_Naruto never told me that he had a fan club…' _Anko sighed, before dropping down to check on her squad captain, perhaps asking a few questions if they had encountered the snake creep yet.

"Oi, what are you doing here?" Anko inquired with a commanding tone that made the blond girl yelp in surprise and turn to look at the examiner, squirming in fear.

"A-ano…" Ino started, but was pushed away roughly as Anko knelt down to observe her captain's condition. Beads of perspiration formed on his forehead as Naruto fought the desperate urge to fall unconscious due to the pain because he still needed to know the conditions of his other teammates. He might not survive the cursed seal for all he knew. He had known that it was a trap that Orochimaru set only when the creep had bitten him, proving his identity. From what Naruto knew from Anko, the cursed seal was designed specially and the ones who had the seals were to pass through the first stage to survive.

From Naruto's point of view, he might not survive at all, since the seal was corrupting his other chakra and the chakra inside him were raging storms, unable to calm down. When he heard Anko's booming voice beyond the buzzing sound and the pounding sensation in his ears, Naruto could only predict his imminent doom.

"Naruto?" Anko asked, as if in disbelief. She turned her head and saw Sakura tending to Sasuke sporting the same cursed seal while Choji was tending to the unconscious Shikamaru. Anko had teased her squad captain at the beginning of the exam and this was the result of it. She could not believe her eyes. She thought Naruto could at least beat him! Even Naruto was stronger than her!

If Naruto could not beat that snake guy, Anko knew that she could not too. It would be suicide to go after Orochimaru then.

"Hang on, idiot. I've sent two ANBU teams coming. I wonder why you're stupid enough to get yourself in this kind of mess…"

Ino looked at the developing events and wondered if that 'Anko' who Naruto addressed as was related to the blonde. Sasuke had fallen unconscious and Sakura stood up and asked, "Ino, what do we do now?"

Ino was speechless. Sakura, the bright one, was asking her what to do?

"A-Anko… D-Don't go a-after O-Orochim-maru…" Naruto gasped between weak breaths, the pain becoming too much to bear. "Y-you will die…"

SLAP.

Naruto winced as Anko's hand came into contact with his cheek. Anko's dark eyes were filled with unshed tears as she worried for her unnamed brother, and yet he was worried that she would go off and get herself killed instead.

"Are you stupid! I won't leave you behind! You stupid idiot!"

_A buttress root caught her foot and she fell clumsily. She looked back to see their pursuers already catching up with her. Anko knew it was the end. Their opponents were S-class ranked missing ninjas and yet when she had first taken on the mission with her squad mates, she thought it would be a piece of cake. Guess she was wrong. _

_She closed her eyes, accepting defeat. She knew it would be honorable to die in a mission and since nobody would grieve for her, she did not bother to get up._

"_Stand up," a certain blonde said, standing in front of her. Anko opened her eyes as the voice took her by surprise. _

"_Naruto?" she was so sure that the blonde had run away with her other squad members already. She had volunteered to be the bait when the others escaped and Naruto had promised her to come back but Anko did not believe him. Who would want to risk their lives anyway? But Naruto did come back._

_He was standing in front of her now. _

_Anko nodded and smiled, standing up. "About time you arrived, kid."_

"_I would never leave my comrades behind."_

_Anko smiled again in the turn of events as one of the nuke-nin shouted, "What! A brat going to defeat us… This is laughable!"_

_Their heads fell off one by one, blood spilling all over the shoulders and onto the blonde's ANBU uniform. _

_As a large amount of blood smacked Anko on the face, she touched the sticky wet substance and said half-jokingly, "If you leave me behind I would have killed you personally anyway."_

Naruto looked up and saw teats glistening on Anko's face, feeling surprised, despite the situation. _'She's crying… for me? Why?' _Damn. Surprise, surprise, that obnoxious subordinate of his was worried for him. "A-An—" the blonde started painfully but was interrupted as the two ANBU teams arrived. They proceeded to salute Naruto but he quickly shook his head to avoid any questions asked by his teammates.

"Anko-sama, we have come as you requested," one who sported a tiger mask said and Anko nodded approvingly, "Great, let's get to the tower now."

Anko laid Naruto down on the floor and he was already drenched in cold sweat, shivering as though someone had poured icy water on him. The ANBU teams and the genin teams had reached the tower in around fifteen minutes and fortunately, they did not meet any other dangerous adversaries, namely Orochimaru and his evil minions. Anko did not want to know how much pain and agony her squad leader was in as she went through Naruto's wet bangs muttering, "You'll be okay, idiot. Just hang on."

* * *

Anko stood up and turned to walk away in hurried steps, her mind only thinking of getting a brush in order to proceed with the _Fuuja Houin _but was immediately stopped by somebody standing right in front of her, blocking her way. Obviously, she was _way _too deep in her thoughts that she had not sense someone walking up to her. She looked up—

And she found herself staring at the Hokage-sama.

"Hokage-sama! You can't believe what the snake bastard did to the brat! That —" Anko started to rant about how she was going to kill her ex-sensei but was silenced by the Third's hand.

"Now, now, Anko. You don't have to go on and fill my mind with these awful thoughts," the old Sandaime chided gently, visibly amused at Anko's tirade. This showed that the harsh, prickly girl was actually very concerned about Naruto's condition. That was Anko for him. When Anko was still in the squad before Naruto was removed, she was often spotted with the demon container and was from then on dubbed as 'Demon Lover' when the villagers saw that she had willingly spent time with the 'Village Demon'. Despite the hard, cold and bitchy exterior that Anko portrayed herself as, the Sandaime knew otherwise.

It was a mask that she had built for herself over the years, after the legendary sannin, Orochimaru, had betrayed her. But the Hokage saw right through it because Anko was only protecting herself from the further damage that might be dealt to her. After the care and concern Anko had showed Naruto throughout the years, the Sandaime was convinced that Anko was far from a threat to the Kyuubi vessel.

She was more of a big sister that Naruto never had.

Speaking of Naruto… The Third's face took on a solemn and serious look.

"Anko, you cannot try to use the _Fuuja Houin _on Naruto," the Sandaime told Anko, as though able to read her mind. After hearing this, Anko simply stared at the Hokage, confused at the events that were folding before her. First, the snake bastard bit Naruto, then now this! How the hell is Naruto going to control that damned seal?

"But, Hokage-sama, certainly you know that—" Anko began to rave but was interrupted by the Hokage again.

"Anko," the Third scolded softly as though gently chiding a little girl who was going to open her Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. "No doubt you know of Naruto-kun's condition."

"Wha—?" Then it hit her. Of course—it had not occurred to her until the Hokage reminded her. If he had not intervened and reminded her at this point of time, Anko would have proceeded on with the evil sealing technique and killed Naruto in the process!

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama," Anko apologized for her impotence to think properly before acting. _She could have killed Naruto! _"I wasn't thinking straight after what that bastard did to Naruto. I just wanted to…" She trailed off, thinking of all the possibilities that could have happened to Naruto while she performed the _Fuuja Houin_—this was called the Evil Sealing Technique and was by far, the only thing that could hold back the power harnessed by Orochimaru's cursed seal.

"It's not your fault, Anko. I know that you're worried about him," Sandaime smiled and then his eyes narrowed. "But we need to find a way to help Naruto with that seal, and fast."

"How are we going to accomplish that?" Anko asked worriedly, biting her lower lip. Why did such misfortune fall on Naruto? That boy did not do anything at all! Even though the village treated him like crap, he still accepted the… treatment and dealt with it! Why Naruto? He did nothing wrong!

The Hokage merely gave Anko a sad smile. "I am hoping that Naruto's… tenant would do something about the cursed seal, you see. As we all know of Naruto's condition, I have no idea how we are going to carry out the _Fuuja Houin _process, so we will just have to see that Naruto will survive this ordeal himself."

Anko nodded grimly. She knew that no matter how bellicose and simply evil the demon lord, Kyuubi might be, the demon would do anything to prevent the death of its vessel. Since Naruto's death would ultimately lead to the demon's downfall, Anko was sure that Kyuubi would at least do… something about the cursed seal.


	11. Complicated Relationships

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is beta-ed by Erugenel on 4th December 2007.

**Carnage**

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* * *

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**Chapter Eleven: Complicated Relationships **

He was treading a pathway that seemed to stretch on for forever, a well-traversed pathway he both feared and recognized. It was silent; the only sound was brackish water dripping from slimy pipes that seemed to grin evilly at him.

The blond boy knew this place. He knew it all too well. Ever since he had found out about the nine-tails that resided in his body, the blonde had tried many ways to communicate with the demon. He wanted to understand why he was maltreated and hated by the villagers so much; there had to be a decent reason behind the entire massacre of Konoha for the unwanted parasite.

But much to the vessel's disappointment and the Kyuubi's glee, a demon never need a reason for all its actions. The nine-tails admitted that it had been fun while it lasted—the killing part, that is. That was until an idiot called the Yondaime appeared and halted all the excitement the demon was having. Naruto knew many things from the demon recently, especially after what Kyuubi had dubbed 'the Ino incident'. The dreams that he had after that, they were actually a connection to Naruto's past.

Naruto was chosen to be the unlucky one to host the Kyuubi, accepted. Naruto will be hated and taunted by the villagers, accepted. Naruto may never have a normal childhood, accepted. The jutsu that Yondaime used to seal Kyuubi in Naruto was irreversible, accepted. The jutsu that involved a death god had backfired a little, although far-fetched, accepted. That jutsu absorbed a little of the death god's chakra and became part of Naruto's, accep—WHAT?

Now, that was interesting. Kyuubi had explained the complicated process that the Yondaime had gone through with the jutsu. It appeared that the jutsu needed an infant (Naruto did not snort at that—his ANBU training had taught him well), a difficult sealing process, an evil demon overlord (Kyuubi snorted—The humans gave him many weird names) and a death god to oversee the procedure who would eventually collect its debt—the soul of the sealer.

From what Kyuubi had seen and known, the Yondaime had struck a very risky deal with the shinigami.

In order to seal Kyuubi into the host, Naruto, and also to prevent the demon from escaping, the shinigami would require the Yondaime's soul and Naruto's 'life'. Naruto would not be killed. However, the shinigami would give some of its life essence—its chakra— to mingle with Naruto's, in order for the blonde to survive the sealing process and to restrain the Kyuubi's overwhelming chakra. An average infant would never be able to withstand the dangerous chakra of Kyuubi as the chakra may one day burn the baby alive. So, to prolong the baby's life, the death god allowed the sealing jutsu to absorb some of its chakra and present it to the baby.

It was both a curse and a gift. The chakra would give Naruto great power, as seen in the fight between Naruto and Zabuza in the Wave country, but the gift would also have side effects. The burning sensations and overwhelming agony Naruto would feel now and then were merely the side effects of his chakra system continuously upgrading in order to restrain _both _the Kyuubi's chakra and the shinigami's chakra. But, the constant upgrading of his chakra system would shorten his lifespan. As the chakra system upgrades, Naruto's body would have to adapt constantly to the new, foreign chakra pathways.

In other words, the chakra would both make Naruto powerful, but also cause his body to deteriorate over time.

Since these 'incidents' could be seen by Hyuuga and Uchiha alike, the Hokage had known Naruto's condition before the Kyuubi had informed his host of it. The Hyuuga and Uchiha were frightened by seeing three chakra dominating Naruto's body—blue, red and black. They thought the world was coming to an end. The Hokage however, immediately knew what foolish stunt the Yondaime had pulled, and gave an order that no Hyuuga or Uchiha were to reveal Naruto's chakra condition to anyone or face a death penalty. The later generation, however, showed no signs of knowing Naruto's chakra condition, much to the Sandaime's relief.

When Naruto knew of his condition, he would never let a Hyuuga or Uchiha use their bloodlines around him and also, he would mask his chakra so that they would only see blue and a tinge of red.

Kyuubi had predicted that Naruto would not live beyond forty, but it was only a lucky guess. However, if Naruto continued to use either the shinigami's chakra, or the Kyuubi's chakra, the deterioration would increase ten fold. It was a frightening thought—one that a fearless demon would be afraid of, as it would mean its destruction eventually. But that thought did not faze Naruto at all.

To accept death meant to overcome the fear of death. Naruto had accepted that he would eventually die one day and that he was in fact living on 'borrowed time' as the death god was willing to part some of its chakra to Naruto in order to prolong his life. The attempt was laughable actually.

As Naruto was lost in his thoughts and continuing down the pathway, he reached the cage that held one of the mightiest demons known in the world.

"Kyuubi-sama," Naruto greeted, bowing formally. Years of training to treat other people with respect were hit into him and it was hard to change to habit.

Kyuubi was always surprised at his vessel's formality. **"Brat. You're finally willing to come and visit me. Well, it will be nice to know that you cared, after all, you are the one who altered the décor of my cage." **

Naruto was bemused at the comment for a moment, before composing himself to have the sense to look within the cage. The usually red walls of the cage, courtesy of the demon caged within it, was stained with black chakra all over the place, all in the shape of a snake. To say that Naruto was shocked was an understatement. He did not know that the effects of the cursed seal Orochimaru had inflicted upon him would be that great—great enough to taint the Kyuubi's chakra. Naruto thought that Kyuubi would at least burn out the cursed seal.

Apparently, his calculation was incorrect. "I apologize for my miscalculation, Kyuubi-sama. I thought that your chakra would be able to burn out the seal, at least. It had never occurred to me that Orochimaru would inflict me with his cursed seal."

"**Are you underestimating my ability, brat?" **Kyuubi thundered, although he knew that Naruto did not mean that. However, sometimes the brat was so emotionless in his speech that even the great demon would never catch what Naruto meant. The demon scrutinized his vessel from head to toe behind the bars, swishing his nine tails impatiently. **"Well?" **

"I would never think that, Kyuubi-sama. You're the one who helped me in times of need and I will never be able to repay you. The seal had happened to be flawless, therefore I can never help Kyuubi-sama separate from my body," Naruto replied, a hint of gratefulness and bitterness in his monotone. His body was often rendered to a helpless state when it was exposed to the villagers' hatred. It was Kyuubi who often healed him no matter how he complained that it was troublesome to have a weak vessel.

Naruto had hated the Kyuubi. The demon had told him right at his face that he was weak. Of course, after that, Naruto proved that he was more than a weak vessel. Kyuubi started to develop some form of respect for his vessel and in turn, both started to treat each other more cordially. Eventually, their complicated relationship turned out to be some sort of friendship. Not even the Hokage knew of this.

Kyuubi knew that Naruto had been researching since at a young age on how to separate himself from Naruto's body. At first, the research was stemmed from hatred—Naruto wanted to release Kyuubi into Konoha to create havoc and destruction again. But recently, Kyuubi was more than a helpful soul, and had often tried to suppress the pain Naruto felt when his chakra system was upgrading.

When Naruto had found the traitor, Mizuki with the scroll of seals, Naruto had been overjoyed (inwardly, as he would never show it) that there might be a chance to free the demon he hosted. He knew that if he separated Kyuubi from his body, _he _will be the monster and not Kyuubi; but he did not seem to care. In the end, he realized all his attempts were futile. The seal appeared to be flawless.

Everyone would think that Naruto would at least _hate _Kyuubi, the cause of all the unhappiness within his life. But, no, hate was too strong a word for what Naruto felt towards his furry parasite. Sure, he disliked Kyuubi although he would never show it, but Naruto also respected the demon, and to the extent that he even thought of Kyuubi as a father he would never have. He knew that Kyuubi would never admit it, but it felt the same as well. Both had been with each other for twelve years (even though Naruto only started to know the demon more after the 'Ino incident' as Kyuubi explained the dreams to Naruto) and gone through thick and thin. Without Kyuubi's encouragement, Naruto might not have the will to live.

"**Naruto, I only did what I could, since I was the problem in the first place. Your determination had me surprised and that was why I had never given up on you. However, I will not allow our destruction to take place. This filthy cursed seal will have to go," **Kyuubi smirked and Naruto widened his eyes.

"You are able to remove the cursed seal?" Naruto was astonished at the revelation. Even Anko had proven that the cursed seal was not removable, unless the sealer was dead. When Anko had first entered his squad, he had known almost everything about the cursed seal, so to be able to understand more about his subordinate's condition. Of course, in return, he had told her about his condition—besides her, only the Hokage and the Hyuuga clan had the privilege of knowing his condition. (The Uchiha clan had already fallen)

"**No, brat. I cannot. With the intervention of your other chakra, it seems almost impossible. However, I will be able to suppress it until you find a solution for it. That means…" **

"I will have to kill Orochimaru. I have been thinking of that for a long time. He _is _a traitor to the village, and also caused much damage, especially to Anko," Naruto's eyes narrowed.

Wah, wah, Kyuubi saw as Naruto seemed to show his anger despite his usual cool and aloof mask. Naruto seemed to care more about what Orochimaru had done to that Anko woman in Naruto's squad, and not his, Naruto's well being. Kyuubi sighed. His vessel was getting soft after all. Naruto was getting more confused with all these relationships he had with those people. The Hokage had been acceptable, and then next came Anko and Naruto's team seven… What would be next?

"**But no, not while you're still in this state. I will train you after this and you may just be strong enough to defeat that snake freak," **Kyuubi told Naruto, while he started to get to work. He had noticed that those black marks were struggling to get out of the cage and were heading towards Naruto. That would never happen—at least not when Kyuubi was present.

"**Brat. You will be in an induced fever for at least a day while I try to suppress these _things_… You better rest till then," **Kyuubi grunted, and set to work as he gathered his red chakra and tried to overwhelm the black marks.

Naruto felt a wave of nausea hit him, even though he was in a sub-conscious mode at his mindscape. He felt the foreign emotion gripping him _yet again _after Anko had cried for him. Even Kyuubi, the great almighty demon, the evil monster in Konoha, an abomination that was a scary bedtime story to little kids, a devil that loved to cause destruction, also showed some concern for Naruto. To say he was grateful and happy was an understatement.

Naruto smiled a true smile at Kyuubi, one that he could call a friend and father. "Thank you, Kyuubi-sama."

"**Cut the Kyuubi-sama crap, brat," **Kyuubi panted as it was taking much effort to push down Orochimaru's cursed seal. That snake bastard. He would pay for all these things. Kyuubi would make sure that the snake bastard would cry and beg for his forgiveness.

Naruto smirked and proceeded to leave his mindscape, as he knew that things would become violent soon. He did not want to be an audience since Kyuubi would probably ask him to scram and get some rest.

"**And kid?" **Wham! His tail squashed another of those weird black snakes getting close to Kyuubi.

"Yes, Kyuubi?" Naruto spun around.

"**If you want to thank me, you better kill that snake bastard." **

Naruto knew that was one of Kyuubi's ways to say 'you're welcome'. He knew that Kyuubi would never say that into his face. No, Kyuubi was too proud for that. Even if Kyuubi _really did _say that, Naruto would probably faint out of shock.

"Sure, it will be a pleasure."

* * *

After Sasuke had won the fight against Yoroi, one of Orochimaru's 'evil minions', the Chakra Kyuuin Jutsu had taken a toll on Sasuke, since it was designed to allow the user to absorb the physical and spiritual energy of Sasuke. Sasuke had displayed his determination as he fought the cursed seal, and to Naruto, he was surprised, mainly because of what the cursed seal can do to a person.

Naruto had wokened up from his induced fever the night before, which was about two days after his team had entered the tower. He had thought that he would have missed most of the parts of the third exam, but apparently, many teams had not reported to the tower yet. That meant that his team had a good rest and Kakashi-sensei had already performed the _Fuuja Houin _on Sasuke. He knew that it would not work on him after Kyuubi's explanation. His chakra would not mix well.

Naruto glanced around the stadium and saw Anko. She had not come to see him even after he had recovered from the fever. But whether she had visited him before and during his fever, Naruto had no idea. But that did not matter. What mattered to Naruto now was to get the preliminary rounds over first so that he would use the two months break to have Kyuubi train him. After that, he would kill Orochimaru personally.

Time flew by, as Naruto was lost in his contemplation and the next thing he knew, the screen bore the words: 'Uzumaki Naruto VS. Inuzuka Kiba'

What the hell? Who won the previous fight?

A certain pink-haired girl answered his thoughts. "Hey Naruto, good luck there. It was too bad that I lost. Ino seemed to have grown much after we left the academy."

So… Ino won? Naruto felt a strange, fluttering feeling within his heart. Was that… pleasure? Did he feel proud that Ino won? "Thank you, Sakura-san. You do not have to worry too much. You can do much better next time."

"What did I tell you about formalities, Naruto-_kun_?" Sakura teased playfully, before engulfing Naruto into a tight hug. Naruto gasped softly, and would have flinched but his ANBU training had taught him to be better than that. But nevertheless, sudden human contact still scared him. "Good luck, Naruto. I was so worried for both you and Sasuke… Both of you scared me! I would never want to lose a teammate…"

Naruto was shocked. Sakura definitely matured after she entered team seven. Was it because she had seen how he killed his opponents, totally unfazed by murdering them in cold blood?

But for now, it was of no relevance. He would concentrate on his battle now, and then go home to rest. The battle between Orochimaru and his team was very exhausting and add on the cursed seal plus the induced fever Kyuubi gave him, Naruto still felt only half of his strength returned to him.

"Well, come down, Naruto, and I will show you what I got!" Kiba shouted from beneath the stands before taunting, "What, scared?"

Naruto performed a _Shunshin no Jutsu _and flickered to the boy with his dog. He smirked. "Let's see who is the scared one now."

"Okay (cough), since both of the contestants (cough) are ready now (cough), the match will now (cough) begin!" the sickly ninja announced, one that Naruto spotted as Hayate Gekko. He was that guy who the Third introduced to Naruto years ago so that the blonde could learn some of the ways of using a sword.

Naruto just stood there and gave Kiba and his partner, Akamaru, an opening to attack freely. Kiba narrowed his eyes, "Getting cocky now, are we?"

Naruto did not reply, however, but remained standing there, his face an emotionless masquerade. Kiba seethed at the unperturbed and aloof display the irritating blonde had shown him. Kiba knew that Naruto was a girl's dream boyfriend back at the academy when he joined abruptly out of nowhere. Kiba did not know anything about him—there were no records on how Naruto had managed to learn ninja skills before he had entered the academy. There _must _be somebody teaching him, since Naruto had managed to perform the genin test so well! Naruto had created ten clones without handseals! Even Kiba had problems creating ten clones back then.

There had been rumours circulating that Naruto was kidnapped by some unknown adversary, and then trained to become a powerful weapon to take down Konoha. Of course, there was another rumor going around that Naruto had already stained his hands with _so much _blood. He had overheard Sakura telling Ino that Naruto had seemed so unfazed with killing when they were in the Wave country.

Despite all these rumors, Kiba was still confident of winning the battle, since he had trained hard ever since he left the academy to work with his team. Even though Shino seemed to be the leader and everything, he loved every moment with his team (party because of his crush, Hinata) and would always try to improve his strengths in order to attack his weaknesses.

Nevertheless… "Shikyaku no Jutsu!(Four Legs Technique)" Kiba yelled and went down to his hands and legs. This technique would give some increase of strength and speed to the user, as well as lengthening their nails into claws. Travel in this mode is somewhat akin to a dog. Kiba was getting serious now.

He broke into a chase and proceeded to enter his claws into Naruto's shoulder and—

The clone poof-ed, leaving only white smoke behind.

What the hell? Kiba looked around and Akamaru barked behind him. _In front of you, master!_

With quick reflexes, Kiba jumped back in order to prevent the success of a high jump kick from Naruto. Missing the kick, Naruto spun in the air before landing on the ground with a somersault. _'Phew, that was really close,' _Kiba thought and nodded to his companion. "Thanks Akamaru. Okay now, let's get serious." Akamaru barked to him in reply and both braced themselves as Kiba performed a jutsu.

"Juujin Bunshin! (Beast Human Clone)" Kiba shouted as Akamaru climbed on top of him. This was one of their clan's prized techniques, as this allowed perfect co-ordination of the user with his or her animal companion. A modified version of a transformation technique, this jutsu would allow a user to transform their animal companion into a perfect copy of themselves. When combined with the Shikyaku no Jutsu (Four Legs Technique), the user and the animal became virtually impossible to tell apart, since both would act equally animalistic. Like any transformation, the jutsu can be broken by identifying and attacking the animal, thus dispelling the transformation.

Naruto analyzed his situation, as well as examining Kiba's every move. This was just too easy—using a clan's technique meant that all his moves would be very predictable. _'And his next move would be the Double Piercing Fang…' _Naruto thought. The battle would be his.

"Double Piercing Fang!" Two enemies came from Naruto's left and right side—Akamaru and Kiba had spun themselves tirelessly, creating some form of a piercing tornado—and pierced right through the blonde.

Sakura and Ino gasped in unison. Both of them knew that Naruto still did not recover fully from his wounds during the fight with that creepy snake freak. No matter how Naruto had told them that he was fine and how the Third Hokage had vouched for his health despite protests from Team Ten and Sakura (Sasuke excluded since he was being treated himself), both of the girls were still worried for Naruto's well being. The Hokage had not let anyone near where Naruto was recuperating, thus, they had no idea how Naruto had recovered miraculously, since he seemed worse for the wear when he was brought into the tower. He had many eye witnesses.

But the next thing that happened had let them felt relieved. Another clone poof-ed out of existence again and Naruto was no where to be found.

"Kanashibari no Jutsu! (Temporary Paralysis Technique)" Naruto muttered as he held Kiba, and his clone had done the same thing with Akamaru. Now for the final touch. Naruto could feel his body groaning in pain already. Apparently, assuring everybody that his body was okay when it was not was a bad idea. But nevertheless, he needed to pass the exam in order to get to Orochimaru.

Naruto yelled, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)" while his clone shouted simultuneously, "Fuuton: Daitoppa! (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)" A small gust of wind blew towards Kiba and his animal companion and the fireball, ignited by the wind, grew larger as the flames danced and engulfed both Akamaru and Kiba in a huge explosion. The wind jutsu would send out a powerful explosion of wind from the user's location, and could easily level anything in its path. A variation of this technique involves a smaller blast of wind that gets ignited with flame, making it stronger and more damaging to the target. Naruto's clone had used a small amount of chakra in order to blast out a smaller gust of wind so that it would merely ignite the fireball.

All Naruto could say was that Kiba and Akamaru were toasts now.

The medic team rushed over to Kiba and his dog as both were groaning from where they were. The results of Naruto's technique had caused burns on Kiba's uncovered areas, mainly his arms as he was smart enough to cover his face. His clothes were burnt and tattered, but nothing compared to Akamaru. It seemed that the dog had thrown itself (it shook off the feeling of the paralysis) in front of Kiba in order to protect its master. Its fur was singed and he looked more like a black dog than a white one now. Both were rushed straight to the Konoha hospital for further medical attention.

The audience were shocked that Naruto had defeated Kiba so easily. Even though the dog-boy was cocky, confident, and full of insults, they did not know that he would fall so easily.

"YOSH, THE POWER OF YOUTH, NARUTO-KUN!" Lee shouted from the stands, jumping like an idiot. His sensei, Gai, stood beside him and nodded approvingly before joining him on expounding the virtues of youthfulness. _That _was one thing Naruto did not need now. The only ones left that did not fight yet were only Gaara from the sand, Rock Lee from the leaf, Hyuuga Hinata and Neji from the leaf.

Naruto walked up the stands, his usual mask still in place. He had already predicted the outcome of his battle, so his victory did not surprise him one bit.

"**Cocky now, are we, brat?" **Kyuubi used Kiba's words against him.

'Cocky and confident are different things, Kyuubi-sama,' Naruto shot back at Kyuubi in his mind.

"**Look, there's that Ino girl over there. She seems to have some things to tell you." **

'I think she just wants to congratulate me, Kyuubi-sama. There's nothing to worry about." Sure, Ino was walking towards him, her face a mixture of happiness and also… concern? Now, that was weird. He was unscathed from the battle.

"**Do not form relationships so easily, kit. Remember the few _friendships _you had back then? Do you remember how they _betrayed _you?" **Naruto felt a pang, which quickly left. He held a dark look on his face and closed his eyes, sighing.

"Some things should best be left unsaid, Kyuubi-sama. Please don't rake up the past. I'm over them now."

"**Oh you are… Are you?" **

Then memories of Naruto being with _him _resurfaced. Naruto clenched his fist tightly until droplets of blood dripped onto the ground from his palm.

He did _not _want to remember! Naruto had tried _so hard _to forget… Why did Kyuubi remind him now? Was it on purpose? He hated those people who toyed with his emotions! He remembered that _one_ friend he had when he was only a kid and that _friend _turned out to be a tool to get close to him so that his _friend_'s parents could kill him! He was six when one kind lady invited him to her house to have dinner so that she could murder him! That was when _he, Itachi_, had saved him but betrayed him by leaving him _alone, rotting in the village_!

Naruto felt his eyes prickling as tears were threatening to fall. _No! He would not cry!_

"Naruto?" Ino inquired as she smiled nervously at the blond boy. He looked like he was having some sort of an internal conflict but was successfully pushing them back as Naruto nodded and greeted the girl, "Ino-san. Congratulations on your victory against Sakura."

Ino's smile grew wider. _'Naruto seemed a little bit better now. But his eyes had darkened when he was walking up the stands… Was it because of me?'_ Ino thought, slightly put off that Naruto might still be angry at her. "Congratulations to you too, Naruto! You were awesome in the battle! But that was double-ouch to Kiba and his dog…"

"I wanted to finish the fight quickly. My body has not fully recovered," Naruto admitted quietly, before a wave of nausea hit him again. That was why he had used a jutsu to paralyze Kiba in order to end the fight, fast. Now he felt his head much lighter… And he could barely make out what Ino was shouting to him as his hand slipped from the banister…

"Naruto!"

"NARUTO!"


	12. Nightmares of the Past

I do not own Naruto and his friends. This chapter is beta-ed by Erugenel on 4th December 2007.

**Carnage**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Twelve: Nightmares of the Past **

When he woke up to a familiar murky and watery place, Naruto panicked.

For the first time in many years, he felt fear again. It was an emotion he was used to and he had almost forgotten that the feeling was so cold, so painful. It was so overwhelming that he felt himself drowning in it. Attempting to regain his composure, he shivered violently when he was gripped with feelings of hatred and anger.

**"Brat, calm down. Don't let your _other _chakra take control of you,"** the demon lord warned in a low hiss as he watched the blond struggling futilely against the black, hand-like chakra clawing at his body. The demon narrowed his eyes as he saw the blond panting and emitting small whimpers of pain. Kyuubi had never seen the blonde display such vulnerability, including Itachi and the demon himself. He watched as the Naruto slowly fought off the callous chakra with sluggish movements, indicating his exhaustion and his waning determination.

When the last of the black wisps left the blonde's small frame and glided to the darkest corner of his mindscape, Naruto fell to his knees and panted heavily. Perspiration allowed his hair that defied gravity to stick to his forehead in clumps. He was about to reprimand the blonde's recklessness and seeming lack of willpower when Naruto inquired wearily, "What happened, Kyuubi-sama?" It was such a tone of despair and pathetic defeat, but then, Kyuubi remembered that Naruto was human, unlike him.

**"That black chakra of yours didn't take the snakeman's gift kindly. Evidently, it saw the seal's effects as a potent adversary. I will find a way to disable the chakra temporarily and then we will launch the training exercise I have in mind," **Kyuubi let his nine tails swish behind him pompously as he recalled what he had planned for Naruto. Oh boy, Naruto would be _so _traumatized after the demon revealed what he had in store for the brat.

Instead of listening intently to what Kyuubi was saying, Naruto was inspecting his hands that were decorated with black, wave-like wisps. Kyuubi stared at the boy for a moment before deciding that Naruto should return to the outside before he began his quest to effectively immobilize the black chakra. **"Return to the outside, brat." **

"A gift to prolong my life?" Kyuubi nearly smacked himself with his own tails when he discovered that Naruto did not seem to take notice of him. Naruto had a strange glint in his eyes as he spoke quietly, "I wish the Yondaime had killed me back then." Kyuubi looked down at the blond boy who looked extremely forlorn at that moment. The demon lord sighed exaggeratedly and chided softly, without a hint of malice in his words, **"Grow up, brat. Life isn't all sunshine and flowers." **

When Naruto did not appear to heed his words, Kyuubi continued sternly, **"Life is all about power, and the route you take to achieve the ultimate success. You must understand that, certainly. You must be strong in order to overcome all the obstacles in your way and to conquer all the humans out there. You must have a heart of stone." **

"A heart of stone…" Naruto muttered under his breath, still staring at his hands as though they were unwanted parasites. Recent events had taken a toll on his mind and body, leaving him drained in body and mind. He just wanted everything to end—what he deemed as the 'ultimate success'. He was _so _tired, and not to mention that he had royally messed up his identity when Kabuto almost told all the genin about him. Naruto would not let that man off easily after that dangerous disclosure of his identity.

**"Of course, with power and a heart of stone, carnage and chaos will follow. It is inevitable, to say the least," **Kyuubi almost _purred_ as he said those words with mock solemnity. As the nine-tailed demon groomed himself leisurely, he noticed the slight quiver in Naruto's body and his maw turned into a frown. **"Brat?" **

When the demon vessel did not respond to the demon's call, Kyuubi tried again, **"Naruto?"** The next thing Kyuubi know was that his dark surroundings faded and the setting of the village came into his view. Despite being an almighty demon lord, Kyuubi knew that at times like these, Naruto would become extremely vulnerable and may submit to his own memory-induced 'movie'.

**"Naruto? Naruto, snap out of it!" **

* * *

He could feel the impact of a rock-hard boot crashing into his jaw, breaking it in the process, as he skidded across the alley. Naruto stood up wearily and eyed his attackers, all of whom were normal civilians and blatantly drunk. He held his broken jaw with one hand and felt the usual red chakra fixing it up within seconds. Disgusted with the blonde's 'demonic' healing act, the drunkards approached Naruto and waved their threatening fists.

"Stupid demon, why can't he just die and never wake up again?" A solid punch, despite the drunkard's lowered accuracy, was aimed towards the five-year-old and he made no move to dodge. He took it in order to please the three villagers so that they would leave him alone, like they always did when Naruto did not retaliate after a while. They always thought that perhaps, the demon would die if they just leave him there, bleeding profusely. Of course, the villagers were always livid when they discovered the demon vessel walking through the village, unscathed, the next day.

"Just die, demon." Naruto felt another kick to his ribs. A sharp pain flared at his side and Naruto realized groggily that one of his ribs might have been broken. After what seemed an eternity in hell where pain and insults were a daily occurrence, the drunkards decided to leave Naruto to bleed himself out as they laughed and joked.

The blonde hissed in agony as he tried to sit up in order to examine his injuries. His healing factor was already kicking in and that was what comforted him the most after all these dramatic episodes. However, as he attempted to stand up when his body was only healed about fifteen percent, his vision wavered and Naruto coughed slightly into his hand.

Pulling away, Naruto noticed the tinge of crimson in his tiny palm when the world turned black.

* * *

Naruto woke up to a comfortable environment, with a soft feather bed underneath his healing body. _'I don't ever recall owning such a soft bed…' _was the first thing that came to Naruto's young mind. He scanned his surroundings warily and immediately, a figure with almost zero chakra dashed into him and started ranting. "Naruto-chan never tells me when he's hurting! Imagine what will happen to him if mama and I did not find him while traveling to the market?"

Naruto blinked once, twice, then, "Kagura-chan?" He rubbed his eyes sleepily and then came to a conclusion that he was in no danger, since he happened to be found by his neighbour and her mother. He remembered the first time he had known Kagura—when he was only four. He had been chased by a mob of villagers and Kagura had extended a helping hand and helped him escape. However, Naruto had never once considered her as a friend. He was too afraid to have one.

"Aa, Naruto-kun, you're awake! We were _so _worried!" A lady who looked no more than thirty stepped in with a bowl of congee, her kind features etched onto the young and petite face. Kagura nodded vigorously and exclaimed, "Mama, what's that you got in the bowl?" The demon vessel noticed a strange, and yet, almost sad glint in her beautiful gray orbs.

"This is for Naruto-kun, dear," Kagura's mother chided quietly. "For swift recovery, Naruto-kun! You must have it warm, I say. Cold food will go to waste." Being trained in a cruel world he was born into, Naruto could detect an undertone in the young woman's demeanor. Naruto backed away slowly, his back to the fluffy pillows he was propped up in, fear coursing through his veins. "I-I d-don't feel h-hungry, Asura-san…"

"But you must eat, dear. It will help with your injuries," Asura insisted, her face almost twisted into a sneer. However, when Naruto refused again and again, a pair of muscular arms grabbed him and forced his mouth open.

_'The pillows… Kagura's father had used the transformation technique to change himself into pillows…' _Naruto thought as he flailed wildly, but to no avail. Hot, white substance was shoved into his mouth and Naruto nearly choked but was 'saved' when minute fingers smoothed over his throat to allow the congee go down the boy's gullet. Naruto widened his eyes in pain at the revelation that the only person he might have considered as a friend betrayed him.

And the only thing Kagura said was, "You can never bring my grandpa back. So, the only option for you is to go to hell and repay for your sins."

_

* * *

DARKNESS. _

_Cold, it was snowing. _

_He was drowning._

_What was pain? _

_He could only feel numbness. _

**

* * *

"OI! Brat! Snap out of it! You idiot! How did you land your mind in such a mess?" **Kyuubi hollered, as he witnessed Naruto's mind taking him on a very nasty trip to his past. Imagine having the entire village already landing his vessel in such a state, and yet, Naruto's own mind seemed to take a liking to mistreat him as well. Ah, the joy.

The scene faded again. Naruto had been so scared all the time but yet, his spirit was still unbroken. To say the truth, Naruto was the strongest person Kyuubi had ever known, as he only knew Naruto. Besides that, the demon lord found his vessel's unyielding courage to be his greatest strength, until Itachi found it all too bothersome and took it away.

Naruto was experiencing the day when Itachi left him at that very moment. Kyuubi thought that perhaps he had jinxed Naruto's mind somehow, or maybe it was just his imagination. He watched on as the Uchiha landed almost fatal blows on the blonde, all the time with Naruto trying to dodge the hits feebly. Itachi knew that Naruto was still weak and injured from the previous day—his birthday episode, when the villagers decided it was finally time to eliminate the demon once and for all.

Naruto could not feel, after that episode. Itachi's betrayal made him feel so hollow, so empty. His whole life had been a lie. It seemed that all the days before had been a lie—when Itachi trained him, helped him and healed him—all a lie.

"Why, Itachi-sensei, why?" Naruto inquired, tears welling up in his eyes. Itachi looked at the demon vessel indifferently as he continued his powerful assaults and replied coldly, "You had been assigned to me as a mission by the Hokage. However, I am leaving. This pathetic farce of a relationship we have, it has to end."

Instead of crying like Itachi expected Naruto to, like always, Naruto laughed hollowly, an ugly sound to be made by a young child. "Is this so fun? To give me hope and crush it again, like everyone else in the village?" Naruto switched from defensive to offensive as he rained blows on Itachi, with the other dodging them swiftly. Naruto could never ever believe what Itachi said next.

"You are merely a tool in order to test my skills. A mission assigned to me, no more, no less."

Naruto faltered in his attacks and instead, tilted his head up to reveal his neck, giving Itachi an opening. "If that is so, then kill me." His blue eyes looked worn and old as he scrutinized Itachi's demeanor, finding no emotions whatsoever on Itachi's face. "You're the same as the others. The villagers. I am too naïve to think that someone would come to accept me for who I am…" Naruto closed his eyes and smiled, a sad smile lingering on his face. "I will remember to haunt you and the village when I'm dead."

"No," Itachi pulled back and relaxed from his stance, his onyx eyes observing Naruto's every move. "I will allow you to live."

"What—" Naruto stared at his ex-teacher, dumbfounded. His head lowered and he clenched his fists in rage, his blue chakra cackling along with his fury. "What do you mean by letting me live? If you're going to leave the village, at least grant me this wish!"

"No. I shall let you live. I want you to feel the pain of living in this village, with all these weaklings," Itachi spun around and turned to walk away. "Perhaps one day we will meet again and I will see how you have grown. Or maybe I will learn that you killed yourself, smothered by the fear of this village. Weakness gives in to fear. Fear gives into anger. And anger, leads to destruction."

Naruto was absolutely stunned by Itachi's words. Every single word that fell out of that man—the man he once called _sensei_—felt like a stab to his still raw wounds. Then, hurt was turned into anger, and anger was turned into hatred. Hatred, something that Naruto felt everyday but something that he could never attempt to use against someone. He had been so scared—that this hatred of his would someday swallow him whole.

And it definitely felt like it at that moment.

"You can't leave me like this, Itachi!" Naruto ran towards the man, the man he came to trust, the man who gave him hope, with his right hand outstretched. Naruto narrowed his eyes as his hand was aiming for Itachi's throat, hoping that it would end Itachi's life once and for all—

* * *

Ino watched as Naruto thrashed around in his bed, perspiration constantly teasing Naruto. His hospital gown was drenched with sweat and his hair that once defied gravity stuck in clumps to his forehead. The blond girl sighed as she wondered what nightmare would cause Naruto to be so… vulnerable at that moment.

When the boy before her had emitted soft moans that held so much pain and sadness, Ino had wanted to use her technique and forcefully barge into the other's mind in order to free Naruto from his nightmare. However, Ino knew that this would be considered invasion of privacy, thus, she started to hum a short little tune instead. The tune had always soothed her when her mother hummed it to her while she had awful dreams.

Abruptly, Naruto's body went all rigid and Ino let out a sigh of relief. Allowing herself to think that perhaps her mother's tune did work for Naruto as well, and that Naruto's nightmare episode had ended, Ino reached out and swept Naruto's hair gently with one hand. She allowed a smile to adorn her face when—

"'Eave me like 'tis, 'tachi!" Ino gasped in shock as Naruto's hand found her neck and tightened its grip forcefully. Ino struggled futilely and watched as Naruto sat up and opened his eyes—they were obsidian black. Black wisp-like substances grew onto Naruto's hands and Ino looked on in horror as Naruto tightened even further, cutting off her oxygen supply instantaneously.

"Na-a-ru-to…" Ino wheezed, her hands clawing at the air and Naruto's hand blindly. She shut her eyes and prayed that either Naruto would come to his senses or someone would step into the room and rescue her. "He-he-help…"

* * *

"For the last time, Anko, this is a hospital, so keep your voice down!" the Hokage scolded, his voice barely a whisper. Anko had been going on and on about how Naruto should not have participated in the preliminary round since he had been knocked around previously. Anko knew that something like that would happen—when Ino informed them about Naruto's fainting—because Naruto was known for not telling anyone if he felt any discomforts and would keep up a façade that everything was all right, when they were not.

"Well, then tell Naruto that he should stop acting like he's fine!" Anko yelled disrespectfully to the door of the room where Naruto was admitted to when she heard an almost inaudible voice that sounded—oddly enough—to be the blond girl they met previously. "He-he-help…"

Astonished, Anko threw open the door and the scene before her left her dumbstruck. However, she quickly regained her composure—like every ninja out there would—and ran to Ino's side, releasing her from Naruto's grip. The blow that Anko landed on Naruto, although rather weak since Anko was afraid that she might hurt Naruto, allowed the blonde's body to slide out of the bed and hit the wall beside the door.

The Hokage jumped into action and proceeded to hold Naruto in his surprisingly firm grip. Inspecting the blonde's condition, Sarutobi told Naruto, "Naruto, you don't want to do this. You don't want to harm Yamanaka-san nor fight any of us." Anko stared at the Hokage and her ex-captain, wide-eyed as the blond girl beside her was leaning against the wall and panting heavily.

"Naruto—" Anko started, but was silenced by the demonic-looking blonde, "No. I shall kill all of you, like the demon that I am. Is this not what everyone wants?" The demon vessel had stopped struggling and the Hokage could no longer sense his killing intent, thus the old man released Naruto. Instead of turning back to his original form, which was not this other-chakra-induced form, Naruto's completely black eyes stared at Anko and Ino before advancing on them calmly.

"Naruto! Wake up! This is not you!" Anko cried, her hands reaching out to caress the brother she had came to love but Naruto took a step back warily. He bared his canines, cautioning her not to get any closer. The demon-like Naruto narrowed his eyes and murmured, "Am I not the monster every villager made me out to be?"

"You are not a monster, Naruto! I don't know what you've been through, but you're stronger than this! Snap out of it!" Ino shouted as she stood up unsteadily as her legs would take her and walked towards Naruto. A resounding slap could be heard in the room as Anko and the Hokage watched in disbelief when Ino slapped Naruto vehemently.

"I-I'm stronger t-than this…?" Naruto asked himself as his black eyes faded to become blue and the black wisps on his body were disappeared. He then realized finally that he was in a hospital ward with Anko, the Hokage and Ino. Ino…? Oh, he remembered that he had fainted when Ino was talking with him. That was a plausible reason that Ino was in the ward.

As if he discovered what he had done during the last few minutes at last, Naruto turned to face all of the others in the ward and gave an ANBU-like formal bow, "I apologize for my impertinence, Hokage-sama, Ino-san and Anko-san. I was trapped in a nightmare and that was why I was unable to control my actions. Forgive my violence." And there he was again, shut off to everybody in the world. Anko thought Naruto would become a crying, sniffling mess, but it seemed that she was wrong, again.

The Hokage, on the other hand, merely waved the apology away. "There is nothing to be sorry or forgive for, Naruto-kun. As long as Yamanaka-san and you are all right, everything is fine." Anko seemed as if she was going to protest—because clearly, Naruto was not _fine _as the Hokage put it—but the Third gave Anko a silencing gaze and shook his head slightly. Anko gave the Third a seething glare, but reduced its intensity when she saw Naruto gave a small _smile _and turned to the other girl in the room.

"Thanks, Ino-san, for assisting me in waking up," Naruto said quietly but as he noticed the obtrusive purple bruise on Ino's neck, he gave a formal bow _again _and excused himself politely, saying that he needed to go to the washroom. Ino could not help but notice how despondent the back of Naruto seemed when he walked out of the room and proceeded to the washroom.

_'It's not just a nightmare, is it, Naruto?' _

_"What a monster." _Somebody sneered.

_"Look at him! See, that unkempt boy who looked like he rolled in mud a few times? Mummy told me not to be near him… Perhaps you shouldn't too!"_ A little boy said to his friend.

_"Pathetic, you can barely withstand this small amount of pain? And to think we called you a demon… You are such a lousy one too!" _A villager commented.

_I shall let you live. I want you to feel the pain of living in this village, with all these weaklings," Itachi spun around and turned to walk away. "Perhaps one day we will meet again and I will see how you have grown. Or maybe I will learn that you killed yourself, smothered by the fear of this village. Weakness gives in to fear. Fear gives into anger. And anger, leads to destruction."_ Itachi-sensei had told him this.

Naruto turned the tap promptly in an attempt to shut all the voices out. The sound of running water cleared his mind instantly and he proceeded to wash his face vigorously. He had often told himself _not to lose it_. Never to lose his cool, and to regain his composure as quickly as he could if he did. It appeared that he was disobedient to his own objective already, only when he had spent a few months with a bunch of kids around his age. He had never actually _lost it _before when he was still in ANBU—so why? He could never understand his own mind and much less control it.

He looked into the mirror and saw his reflection, just like before—after the 'Ino incident'. He definitely needed more sleep—Naruto figured that he must have miscalculated about the hours he had slept while the Chuunin exam was in progress. The eye bags were showing more than they usually should, a sign of weakness, exhaustion. After the trick his mind seemed to play on him, Naruto felt more exhausted than he could ever be. He took every ounce of his effort not to think about the past anymore and put everything behind him, again, like he always did. So why did it seem more difficult this day?

Naruto took a deep breath and spoke under his breath, "Everything is in the past. I have nothing to look forward to, but at least, I must live in order to kill Orochimaru." He permitted his legs to buckle beneath him and he leaned against the cold, tiled wall, feeling very empty. There were many times when he asked himself, "What's the purpose of living?" And his answer would always be the same, "I will live, so that shows that I'm strong. If I want to die, that shows that everybody else who wanted me dead would have won. And that will show how weak I truly am."

Naruto pulled his knees to his chest and rested his head on them. He could still remember all the times when he was this miserable. There were nobody to talk to and he could never think that someone would ever comfort him. Times like these always made him want to give up and the only thing stopping him was his pride. He wanted to win and he would never allow the villagers to gloat over his dead body. No, he was much stronger than this.

_"You are not a monster, Naruto! I don't know what you've been through, but you're stronger than this!" _Ino had shouted this to him. She said he was stronger than this. His soul, which was nearly swallowed by the overwhelming darkness, allowed a sparkle of light as the words rang in his mind. _"You're stronger than this!" _

Alas, the light was snuffed out by the blonde's own depressed thoughts and the words seemed to ridicule him instead. "You're wrong, Ino-san. I am weak, just like how Itachi-sensei thought I was." As he attended to his own thoughts, an image of a smiling Ino came to him, her melodious voice humming a short little tune that he found very comforting.


End file.
